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Published:
2024-04-12
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the boy in the blue moon dreams of sun

Summary:

Amanda's bullet misses, but Ari still falls.

Notes:

2024 is a wild year to be getting into Nikita for the first time, but here we are.

For all the Ari Tasarov enjoyers out there (probably just me).

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Something changed in that transport van in South Ossetia. 

“We’ll get you back from Amanda’s clutches after the trade,” Nikita assured him easily, and she sounded so earnest that Ari almost believed her. “Everything’s going to be fine. You’ll be safe.”

Ari knew a con when he saw one. Not that he blamed her. He knew the rules of this game, the risks of their world, and his profession. It made no tactical sense to double back for retrieval, and for an enemy agent, no less. If he were Ryan Fletcher, that blue eyed boy scout spider at the center of all these Division webs, he wouldn’t authorize a rescue operation for him either. It’s simply not logical. 

He doesn’t even blame Nikita for lying to him. 

Except she wasn’t lying. 

Nikita’s head perked up oddly when he complained casually of his awful headache. She darted to his side at once to inspect the base of his neck.

“Move your hand,” she said shakily. He complied, noting curiously the guilty way Owen keeps glancing at Nikita, and Sean’s marked radio silence. So everyone was in on it except for her, by design, apparently. Interesting. 

“You put a kill chip in Ari’s head?” Nikita was practically shouting at the poor fools in Ops through her com, and, god, wasn’t it glorious for once to be the beneficiary of all that lovely righteous anger. Ari felt something shift inside his chest. Metaphorically, of course, unless Division also planted a heart zapper as insurance. He rubbed his sternum discreetly. The absence of post-surgical soreness suggested not. 

“Give me the trigger,” Nikita said, dangerously low, cornering Owen at the back of the vehicle. He had the decency to look sheepish for deceiving her, but evidently not enough to back down. 

“I say the bastard deserves to die,” Owen said defensively, “Or have you forgotten all the times he tried to kill us?”

“That’s not your call!” Nikita cried, her voice resonant with emotion and compassion and… justice, probably. It’s strangely adorable. “He’ll pay for his crimes, but not like this. We don’t do this to people. We’re not Percy’s Division anymore. We’re not—” her voice breaks a little, “We’re not executioners.”

Owen’s face softens a fraction, but he shakes his head. “Sorry, Nikita.”

Nikita looked ready to take the trigger from him by force, but before she got the chance to try their journey was promptly derailed by a roadblock-cum-ambush. They were ushered at gunpoint out to the edge of the bridge with their hands behind their heads, while their captors pawed at their weapons cache. 

“Get rid of them,” one of the Ossetian thugs said, pointing his gun at Nikita’s back. 

Ari reacted quite without thinking. Stupidity compelled him to reveal his identity to the Ossetians as a wanted man and reputed war criminal, urging them to take him and his companions as high profile hostages. He was, apparently, an imbecile. 

Fortunately, his companions, annoying as they may be, were also remarkably well trained agents. In the brief moments of ensuing confusion, he, Nikita, Owen, and Sean managed to overpower the bandits with little difficulty. Ari aimed his gun lazily at one who was about to kill Owen, and pulled the trigger. He relished the look of idiotic surprise on Owen’s stupid blond face.

“Ari.” Nikita’s voice and hands were soft and hesitant when she pulled him aside in the aftermath. “Why did you save us?”

“Purely selfish reasons, I assure you,” Ari drawled smoothly. “You’re still my best chance at coming out of this alive.” He gently removed his elbow from her grip. “Surprise kill chip notwithstanding.”

He pretended not to see the intense warmth in her answering gaze. 

The hostage exchange took place in a very crowded, heavily policed public square. Unexpectedly, Owen willingly gave up the trigger to Nikita unprompted. Clearly, Ari saving his life scrambled his murderous resolve. The plan quickly evolved from using the kill chip to tracking it. 

“I’m not leaving here without you,” Nikita repeated fervently, and this time, against all reason, Ari dared to believe. 

Things turned a bit sideways after the trade. Ari for Alex. Then diverging priorities fracture the four-man team into two smaller ones. The newly freed Alex, unbalanced but insistent, took Sean to mount a rescue at the hospital that had been her prison, and Owen, determinedly, left with Nikita to extract Ari. 

There was a good amount of squawking from Michael and Ryan when Ops figured out Nikita’s new plan. Of course Amanda can’t have the code to the black box, that’s why they had to eliminate Ari from the equation. If he died, the code died with him.The two scrambled to convince Nikita and Owen not to execute what, in their eyes, was a reckless and unnecessary suicide mission when they had a perfectly good kill chip—

Nikita angrily ripped out her earpiece and launched it out of the car window. Owen snickered. 

Meanwhile, Ari’s new prison was a cold, armored van, which was starting to feel a bit cramped with Amanda’s burly armed escorts. Ari rubbed his cuffed hands together to generate heat. It didn’t do much. 

They arrived at their ominously secluded destination at nightfall. Before the van even shut off, Amanda turned to him expectantly with black box in hand. Priorities. 

Amanda entered her code first into the laptop while Ari looked on wearily. The guards exit the vehicle, presumably to set up a perimeter. 

“Your turn,” she ordered dispassionately. He hesitated, and actually considered refusing.  Nikita really was becoming a bad influence. 

Amanda’s eyes narrowed into slits, and she stepped menacingly into his space. The proximity would have been a playful, titillating thing, once upon a time. But no longer. 

“I’m sorry, I thought you understood there was an ‘or else’ implied,” Amanda hissed. “But I can be more explicit if you need the reminder.”

From there they were diverted into a friendly exchange of vitriol about betrayals, delusions, cowardice. Familiar territory. Ari was almost nostalgic.

But he knew Amanda was not to be deterred. Resigned, he settled himself in front of the computer screen. 

As Ari was inputing his half of the black box code, the sound of gunfire suddenly erupted from outside the van. Amanda glanced away but prodded him to continue. 

“Quit stalling.”

A dull crash from the commotion startled Amanda, and Ari, sensing an opportunity drawing near, gripped the laptop tightly, his other hand hovering over the port where it connected to the black box. 

Someone outside groaned in pain. One of the guards. Amanda sprang distractedly to her feet at the sound. 

In a single motion, Ari swiped the black box into his coat pocket and swung the laptop across Amanda’s face with a satisfying thwack. He was out of the vehicle before she hit the van floor. 

His eyes darted this way and that, searching for his rescuer. He spotted her. 

Nikita, poking her head out from behind a corner, beckoned to him frantically. 

Amanda came after him with a gun, because of course she did. Her first few bullets whizzed forbodingly past his ear. 

Nikita charged toward them, her own gun drawn. Another close shot from Amanda had Ari ducking for cover. Nikita seized Ari’s collar and hauled him safely behind her. 

The crack of two confident shots echoed in the alley like a death knell. Amanda crumpled to the ground, her gun clattering away as she fell. 

Nikita stood there frozen for a moment, gun still raised, shock and relief warring on her face. 

Ari groaned as he sat up, stirring Nikita from her thoughts. She was at his side in an instant, hands flitting over him checking for injuries. “Are you—?”

“I’m alright,” he said, lightly batting her hands away. “See? Just my knee from when you threw me—“

“Saved your life, you mean!”

“You launched me into the concrete,” Ari replied, deadpan. Though he couldn't help cracking a smile as Nikita scoffed and shoved his shoulder. 

“Thank you. For saving me,” he conceded, still grinning. And she must have recognized the sincerity of his gratitude, because she offered a small smile in return.

Ari made a low hum of realization and held up a finger. "I almost forgot." He fished the black box from his pocket. “Do you want your prize now?”

Nikita was astonished when he simply dropped it in her hands. She turned the drive over thoughtfully and fixed him with a curious look. 

“Just like that? No ransom, no deals?”

He met Nikita’s gaze steadily, and confirmed, “No ransom. No deals.”

Her touch was so soft on his face as she leaned into him, and when their lips met just as softly, Ari savored it with no regrets. 

Notes:

disclaimer i really do like michael & nikita together, but season 3 gave me ari feels.

actually imo they rushed the mikita endgame a little when they could've maximized dramatic tension by pairing nikita (temporarily at least) w other characters (ryan bc wtf were those looks in s1, ari, owen maybe) do u see my vision??