turnsheet_bureau:5:man_down [Contagion]

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======Man Down======

[CW: Extreme violence]

You've seen many forests larger and deeper than the Bastion's. These trees, though, hinting at autumn in their fading leaves, scare you. You feel Devo's fingers tearing into your shoulder as clearly as you feel the stony ground beneath your feet.

Raindrop turns to you. Her pointed look snaps you out of your daze. 'We should get moving if we don't want eyes on us.'

----

Raindrop and you slip between the trees. The space between trunks gets thinner and thinner, and the daylight is slowly but surely forced out by tangled leaves above you. Low light gives way to sharper hearing, and it's not long until the two of you hear an inhuman gurgling you recognise far too well. Your hand moves to your pack, confirming that the wiry muzzle you've packed is still there. Raindrop tilts her head to ask, 'Do you hear that?'

You nod.

You will have to tell Raindrop what she's here for. You can't let her run into that corpse, puppetted by the sickness, by herself. You know she's seen them before. You've seen them together - you'll never forget Lottie's face, splattered against the infirmary wall - but Devo's 'Darling' still makes you feel sick. The gurgling, and the scratches, and -

You can't keep letting these pictures line the back of your eyes. It can't all be scary. It can't all be terror clawing desperately at your throat. It can't all be that pain in your neck, that thin metallic wire tearing its way through the first layer of your skin, that all-too-familiar voice at your ear -

'I think that's all your business here.' Devo's voice, always poisoned by a small smile, is inches away from your head. Raindrop doesn't seem to hear, her focus far from you and the garrote held at your neck. Her eyes lock onto something you can't make out between the trees.

You nod back, tiny, fragile nods, trying to calm Devo down without wrapping your neck more tightly with the sharp, cold wire he holds.

'…Me and Raindrop, we'll leave.' 

He just sighs, though, without a hint of pity. 'But you'll come back, won't you? You'll try to take her from me. I thought you //understood//, Nio. I thought I could //trust you//.'

Fuck.

Raindrop doesn't notice.

'Ow!' Devo's voice finally breaks through to her, though, as you kick his shin with the heel of your boot with all your might. Raindrop spins round, then, reaching for her gun. It's then you realise how carefully Devo must have approached - its head is lined up perfectly behind you, so Raindrop couldn't kill him without probably killing you, too.

'What's wrong, Raindrop?' Devo smiles. 'Something in your way?' You expect a shake in Raindrop's arm, a loosening of her grip, as she realises that it's //your// eyes her gun's sights are lined up with. Instead, you see a strengthening, a movement of the trigger finger that you recognise all too well.

'Don't!' You sob. 'Don't! Please!'

Raindrop narrows her eyes, snaps her head away, back to that spot in the trees. Her gun arm follows, then the //click// of the trigger, then the familiar sound of bullet in flesh.

'What are you //hiding,// Devo?' Raindrop insists, once she's heard the body - Devo's Darling- hit the ground.

'Nothing at all!' But Devo's voice is muffled as he moves away, leaving a thin red line at your neck. He sprints towards the body, quicker than you've ever seen him move. Raindrop's arm remains poised, pointed now at Devo's back. You think, then, not of the tight pain in your neck, but of the passion in Devo's voice when he first… Introduced you? You don't know how to reconcile that love with everything else you know about him, but you can't stop yourself from yelling, 'Stop! Let it go!' to Raindrop.

Despite your protests, she pulls the trigger again.

Another body falls to the ground, obscured in all but sound by the trees.

You clap your hands to your mouth.

Your head is a mess, but Raindrop is all action. 'Leave. Now. The threat's been neutralised, and we can get help to clear the bodies.'

Raindrop hisses more instructions to you, but you don't hear them. Can't hear them? //Won't// hear them?

'We need to //go//.'

You nod back at her. There's something about the look in her eyes that you don't want to poke at.

You follow her, dazed, into the trees.

----

Your absence goes unnoticed. Something is in the air at the Bastion - something as tight and sharp as Devo's wire, and no one has the time to ask where you went, let alone why Devo hasn't returned.

{[]}{{tag>writeup5 gm_yona complete}}