Chapter Text
All she got for that was a slight turn of the head.
The expression of Valerie’s face wrenched at her and Felicity quickly landed on Val’s shoulder. “Don’t worry,” she murmured, focusing on waking up the jarred connections in Valerie’s limbs. “Eugene and the others are helping to bring this whole place down, but we need to get you out of here first.” She tried to keep the scowl from her voice as she found connections sluggish and difficult to open. “I’m afraid we don’t have much time.”
Valerie remained quiet, blinking slowly, unseeing with the asymmetrical focus of her dull eyes. The light in them flickered to life briefly now and then but for the most part they were at different levels of dilation and reaction.
Some twitching in the arm was Felicity’s reward and she sighed, moving up to the side of Valerie’s head. There wasn’t much reaction to that, Val just squinted as the drone’s feet brushed across her brow.
The skin around her ocular port was burned but Felicity could still connect to it. Reaching in revealed stuttering connections and a couple of fried threads, but she could restore somewhat unfocused, monochromatic sight at the very least. Better than nothing.
Valerie jerked slightly as the sight came back, grunting but still not talking. Felicity just kept working, moving to the port behind Valerie’s ear and checking on the internals. Hearing was active and undamaged, cranial implants were fine, as were those throughout Val’s body. Most were to monitor her skeleton, muscles and tendons rather than her organs. With her limbs designed with combat in mind, most of her internal structure had to be reinforced to support the greater durability and strength of the new parts. Muscles and tendons were more at risk of tearing and bones could snap or crunch depending on the stresses involved. Multiple micro-weaves were applied to enhance Val’s organic body and keep her intact. She was a walking ‘investment.’
Sharp and jittering, like dancing sparks on broken copper plates—Felicity pulled out of the connection. Nothing was that wrong internally, but Val’s systems really did not like being violently isolated.
She moved back down to the arm and manually opened the dock making up the upper most part of it. Waking it up wasn’t a problem so much as making it connect to the rest of Val’s systems was. But she could forcibly reach through and move it herself.
“You came back.”
Felicity paused and projected herself kneeling in front of Valerie. “You aren’t some wreck to gladly leave behind,” she said firmly. “You’re my partner.”
She knew what Valerie was thinking and why, it made perfect if horrible sense and it sickened her. But she wasn’t about give Cass the satisfaction of seeing Valerie broken and dead. The very thought stoked anger in her she didn’t think was possible.
Valerie blinked slowly and looked down at her legs, frowning. “You might die here.”
Felicity shook her head. “We’re leaving this place alive, even if I have to drag you out with your own limbs.” She settled the drone in its dock and her projection fizzled briefly as she moved back into the safe box buried in Val’s body. “I’m not letting you die.”
Silence wrapped around them for the half-minute it took her to settle back into place.
The dull shouting of crowds rose, echoing to them from the stairwell. The first bout had either just begun to just ended—she couldn’t tell. Felicity frowned and lifted her hand, running her fingertips through the right side of Valerie’s face. “You’re not dying here,” she said firmly. “I can move your limbs for you and we can get out of this together.”
Valerie stared at her, eyes occasionally flicking to the cell door. Looking at her legs again, Valerie nodded curtly with a grimace.
Felicity sped into action, vanishing from sight as she focused on getting Val to her feet. It was slow at first, they mistook one movement for another and Valerie stumbled a couple of times before they got it right.
They had a couple of hours at best to practice moving before Valerie was hauled to the pit. Most of it was done in silence aside for the occasional reminder that this might get Felicity destroyed and her firm rebuttal of the suggestion to escape while she could. What would she even do if she escaped? Yes, there were actual things she could do with her existence if she escaped but she wouldn’t be able to deal with the knowledge that she wilfully left Val to die.
The unlocking and opening of gates distracted them both and Valerie turned her head, scowling. Three sets of footsteps approached and they quickly set Valerie down where Felicity first found her. Before the cultists reached them, Valerie breathed a quiet thank you. Felicity just watched their ‘escort’ loom into sight, silently working on the connections in Valerie’s disabled parts.
Valerie was roughly picked up, grunting as they half-carried her through a winding corridor. It quickly turned into a spiral stairway and they came to another gate, pit light glaring between the bars. Unlocking it with a card, the gate swung open and Valerie was shoved inside, stumbling into the glaring light. She fell to her knees and leaned heavily on her working limbs, the other side of her body hanging limp for now.
The sight of the crowd laden stands and the jagged metal of the ring—it was a much different sight from the pit itself.
Blood already decorated the floor in drops and splashes, hands scrambling, printing and smearing through their own fluids in frenzied desperation to get up or get away. It clung to the air like a fog all on its own, as all-encompassing as the shroud of the marsh.
“Tostaich!” Cass’s voice bellowed over the crowd, silencing them with her sheer tone. Realizing the modulation was gone, Felicity peered up through the glaring light to see Cass stood without her helmet. She shared Val’s light tawny skin colour, but the eyes were cold and her face was cruel, sneering.
She raised her hands and declared, “our usurper has been found! A snake who hid within the fog and disguises her weakness with metal and circuitry!”
The crowd’s displeasure was palpable, hurling insults at their enemy. Valerie just stared up at them with an expression of stone, letting the screams wash over her as her eyes fixated on Cass.
The cult’s ‘Alpha’ pointed to her, snarling. “This snake tried to poison us! Undermine our right to Saunburg and its people! She lies before you now as pitiful as an infant, no more than a morsel for the Maw!”
At that, Bloodfiend stepped into the light on the other side of the pit, grinning ear to ear with her wet knife at the ready. The crowd cheered her on and she began to advance, eager to carve Valerie to pieces for their amusement. However, as soon as she got close Valerie was on her feet, surprising Bloodfiend, Cass and most of the crowd. A kick to the chest sent Bloodfiend stumbling onto her arse and Valerie raised her head, looking directly at Cass.
Fury tempered her voice into something primal, making their mother-tongue far harsher than normal. “You are nothing but a fool!”
Cass bared her teeth, roaring at Bloodfiend. “Kill her!”
The champion lunged to her feet. Had it been the cybernetic leg, her ribs might have caved inwards. As it was she likely had some cracks, if they were lucky.
Surging into action, Bloodfiend proved just how vicious a creature she was. They barely managed to keep up with her and avoid her blows. The earlier practice was just enough to keep Valerie from serious injury, but shallow cuts kept opening across her skin.
Desperation and fear tangled into white hot anger and Felicity pushed harder, shoving Valerie back with a kick of her leg. Bloodfiend lunged after them, snarling and eager for blood. Felicity caught her by the wrist, clenching hard enough to break the bones inside. If the sensation brought her horror she buried it too quickly to register. It wasn’t useful right now. Valerie was in danger—she couldn’t afford disgust.
Bloodfiend roared and slammed her brow into Valerie’s face. Her nose crunched and sent thin streams of red down her chin, but Felicity kept a tight hold. They still had Bloodfiend by the wrist. Not her weapon hand though.
Val managed to stop Bloodfiend from shanking her, hitting the offending arm so it missed its mark. They were too close for Bloodfiend to stop the knee that slammed up between her legs. She grunted and threw herself forward, sinking her teeth into Val’s left shoulder.
Pain flooded the sensors in Val’s body and Felicity twisted Bloodfiend’s broken wrist, letting go as it distracted her from biting Valerie. Once her hand was free, Felicity slammed it into their opponent’s ribs and felt them buckle. Another detail she smothered quickly.
Valerie wrestled the knife into her hand and reversed her grip. It quickly found a home in Bloodfiend’s kidney. In her shock, Valerie pushed forward, taking her to the ground and twisting the knife. Bloodfiend screamed and tried to punch her, but the swing was wild and Valerie pulled the blade out. She stabbed again, driving it under Bloodfiend’s jaw once her arms were knocked out of the way.
Finally Bloodfiend was still and silent, eyes rolling, fluttering, losing focus—her blood began to pool beneath them.
Valerie grunted and stood up from the body, dropping the knife. Its clatter emphasised the dead silence surrounding them.
Before a single word could be spoken the silence was shattered by explosions rocking the fort. Gouts of fire burst overhead, spraying bits of wall and piping that sent the crowd into a frantic rush. Surprised screams rippled through them in waves and they tripped over each other in their bid to escape. Chunks of metal collided with the pit, sending sparks and more bits of debris flying.
“Valerie!” Rick’s voice yelled from the closest edge of the ring to her. She looked up and he tossed down a scoped revolver with a long barrel and large calibre. Felicity grabbed it first as they jumped for it and immediately raised it towards Cass’s platform.
Valerie frowned deeply, eyes flicking across the crowd. Her vision was getting better and she could see a section of piping had blocked off escape for Cass and her guards. The panicking crowd wasn’t making it easy to just climb out and escape through the stands, but they would get out eventually. They’d escape even if they had to bludgeon and shoot their way through their spectators and followers alike.
It wouldn’t last long. Felicity knew her aim was off without Valerie’s other hand and if they didn’t take the shot…
To her surprise, Valerie raised her voice to a bellow once more. “Cass!”
She lifted her hand to steady Felicity’s aim, watching Cass turn her head to look directly at them, scowling. Valerie’s expression softened in turn as the scope lined up. “Soraidh,” she murmured.
Felicity pulled the trigger and Cass fell back, her blood and brain matter splattering across the remaining former-Wolves.
A cold, hollow sensation rippled through her and Felicity lowered the gun, her grip far too tight to keep it steady now. Valerie turned them away, searching for an escape. It was soon provided in the form of a keycard being tossed down by Rick again. “We’re getting out! The fire’s gonna burn it all up!”
Cass’s platform exploded in a cloud of black smoke and globs of flaming accelerant.
Valerie flinched and snatched up the card, refusing to look back and see the damage. They ran to the gate Bloodfiend came from and opened it, switching which hand held what as they moved through the fort. Felicity just tried to watch her back and pay attention to limb movement, tuning out everything else.
They reached a chamber that served as Cass’s quarters and Val stumbled inside, haphazardly searching until she found the case of her armour. She checked all of it was there before turning and looking around the room. Her rifle was easy to spot and she slung it over her shoulder. She started to return to the armour case but spotted a faded standard hanging over a small, simple bed.
It was red with a blue border and a symbolic canid emblem in black. She tore it down and rolled it up, stuffing it into the armour case.
“I was the one who found you, you know…”
Valerie tensed at the voice and its fluency in her mother-tongue. She whirled around and aimed the revolver at a figure leaning in the doorway. “Aric.”
His armour was smoking along most of his left side, the surface warped and half-melted. Something had punched through his side and left a nasty hole, leaking bright red over his fingers.
He took a step forward and immediately slumped to his knees, coughing into his helmet. It was quickly wrenched off and he dropped it carelessly, revealing bloody lips and tired eyes.
Valerie kept a stony expression and Felicity grabbed the armour case. Aric smiled, grimaced, and coughed again. “Went to scope out the south and saw you on a job.” He strained to speak, his voice turning into a wet rasp. “It was me who got you into this.”
Her jaw clenched and she started to walk around him, only to stop at his next words. “I knew you’d end it.”
Val looked back at him. “Why?”
Aric laughed forcefully, red droplets flying from his lips. “I wanted to live, I could see where Cass was gonna go and I didn’t stop her then. I’ve never stopped her. But when I saw you were alive? I knew…” He hung his head, coughing thickly and gasping for air. “I knew it could stop.”
A growl left Valerie’s throat. “You spineless coward! We were a family!”
Aric’s laughter came again, wetter, rougher. He nodded and curled onto his hands and knees, clearly struggling for air through the internal bleeding. “I know...” He looked over his shoulder at her. “Finish it. Put an end to us.”
“Val…” Felicity was abrupt, making Valerie jolt slightly. “We need to leave. He’s bleeding out as is. You don’t have to—you don’t want this memory too.”
Valerie grunted and dropped the revolver at Aric’s side. “Do it yourself, if you’re so full of guilt and can’t wait for the void to claim you,” she said coldly, shoulders squared. “I won’t hurt myself for your benefit.”
She turned away and they left quickly. If Aric used the gun they didn’t hear it and Felicity was thankful for that.
There were enough memories here both of them would like to bury.
Despite Eugene’s best efforts, they managed to ghost their way back to Valerie’s room at Saunburg.
The town was celebrating their victory, spreading the news and spectacle of the cult’s base engulfed in flames. Perhaps they would know not to be afraid again, should another group rise and try to hurt them. But that was beyond Felicity’s concern and well beyond Val in her current state.
Valerie wanted nothing to do with the celebration and insisted they would catch the first ferry come morning.
“Thank you.”
Felicity turned away from the window to meet Val’s tired stare, warm lamp light spilling across the left side of her body from the bedside table. She sat with her back against the wall and her knees drawn up, arms propped upon them and hands linked. A weathered look of exhaustion dominated her face, softened by the thinnest sliver of relief.
She looked so small.
“For what?” Felicity asked, genuinely puzzled.
Val was blunt. “Saving me.”
Felicity shook her head and walked over, kneeling her projection in front of Valerie. “You never have to thank me for that,” she said firmly, reaching out to stroke through Val’s arm, mimicking pressure in Val’s sensors to emphasis her speech. “Ever.”
Bright pupils flicked down, away from her face, and Felicity frowned in worry. “Val?” She bowed her head, trying to catch Valerie’s eyes.
Sadness rippled through their shared systems and Valerie sighed, closing her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
It was much easier to guess what that was for and Felicity tried to impress a hug on Valerie’s arm, moving her projection as a visual cue. “Don’t,” she murmured. “All she did was cause harm and try to kill you. It needed to be done.”
If she hadn’t pulled that trigger, Cass could have escaped and just started up somewhere else, threatening Valerie all over again. She’d already shown herself to be an unrepentant murderer and sadist, not to mention the insufferable traits that led to her to disabling Val’s cybernetics. She was a terrible, terrible person and Felicity couldn’t risk it. She couldn’t risk something important being ripped away from her again.
When they returned to Sanctuary, they would take a look at the drone and see about retooling it. That horrible moment at the eel farm wouldn’t happen again if she could help it. She had felt so useless without any tech she could quickly manipulate.
Perhaps the drone wasn’t enough by itself. She’d been so afraid of stepping into another frame like the constructor or the power suits, but she could feel herself shrugging that off in light of recent events.
The drone wasn’t enough. It was a shell made for stealth and subterfuge, but she couldn’t protect Valerie with it things went south.
Tugging on Val’s sensors got her to open her eyes half-way and Felicity leaned close, her voice coming out quiet and hard. “You matter to me in a way no one else has. I can’t—won’t—lose you.”
Valerie nodded and the sadness slowly ebbed, but Felicity it would permeate her for a while. Val’s voice was gentle as she spoke. “I’m taking a break when we get back. You won’t have to worry for a bit.” She offered a weak smile and Felicity tried not to reflect any melancholy back at her.
The hurt would fade and the memories of this trip would dim with time. Valerie at least had that luxury and for that, Felicity was grateful. For now however they fell quiet, pondering events and what it meant for the future, but content to stay together.