come_sailaway | END GAME: THE COUNTDOWN STARTS

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END GAME: THE COUNTDOWN STARTS

[the prisoners wake up on cold, hard floors.

the lights are bright, glaring, a sterile cell with sterile bars facing a sterile hall. the prisoners with you, across from you, and no one else. no rocking of a ship in waves, nothing. just the prisoner and their prison.

time passes, one assumes. the rhythmic click of Friday’s heels down the hall. it’s almost like the ticking of a clock.]

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[and with a thinking it over that totally happened over less than five IC minutes:]

Okay. Please get me out first.

[get the team, then ask where his brothers are - his sister, with Malin, so it'd be better to aim for them to start with. especially since the others were headed off to find her anyway.]

[for a moment, nothing seems to happen, except for a little determined glint in his eyes. then, the tang of ozone, and the hair of everyone in the general vicinity starts to frizz with static. Guatauva seems to get it worst of all, becoming little more than a puff of orange fur, its tail sticking straight up.

lightning strikes a bar.

he probably should've warned everyone about the blinding light. whoops.]

[YES YES YES YES YES YES

the lightning might be blinding but she's used to it from casting, which means that the very second she can squirm her way through the now melted bars, she is, and picking up her feet. freedom. it tastes as sweet as it did every other time.]

Next, Valdis.

[Valdis, Valdis...there she is. Fever knocks on the bars, as if her presence wasn't enough to gain notice.]

Hope you're ready to get out now.

[Valdis looks up to see the cat and Fever. A smile creeps across her face.]

I'm ready for another team up with you.

Figured I owe you from that Village. Plus, Max wants you out.

[a smile exchanged for a smile. go kiss the man about it later, when they win.]

[Of course Max would vouch for her. Valdis stands up.]

Even without powers, I'm pretty sure we can figure this out.

[She glances at the cat.]

Who is your friend?

...I actually don't know.

[this is said right before Guatauva lets off another lightning burst to melt Valdis's cell. name trading hadn't been as important as getting out, though the cat had her name.

okay. one more. one more person she can liberate and take with her. she knows who she wants to have at her side, and turning on her heel, she's striding down the hallway in search of him.

that is, of course, unless someone decides he's going to get her attention.]

( steve doesn't know what's going on. he'd barely paid attention to the talking cat when it passed by — not like it could do much to help them, right? nothing it told natsuno really seemed to imply that, anyway. as far as he's concerned, they've been stuck, they're still stuck, and they shall remain stuck.

but when he sees the person he only knows as the very capable woman who'd taken care of his brainwashing issues in the village, he's at the front of the cell in a flash. she's free. what the hell. )

Hey! Hey wait! What are you doing? How'd you get out?

[that's enough to get her to stop in her tracks, and she looks over at him, hair fluffed by the twice-over static.]

The cat and I struck a bargain. We free his siblings, and he's doing what he can to get a few more of us out so we can do so.

[she knows this boy. has avoided him, mostly, because of what happened in the Village. people get weird after you murder them, and that's not something she's wanted to actually face.]

The cat...

( he presses his face a little closer to the bars, as if he might catch another glimpse of the animal. maybe he can ask it for a favor, too — but that's not really how this works, is it? they have limited power, limited time. if the cat's helping her, this is his only chance.

it's not intentional but when he looks back at the woman, his eyes are wide and pleading (and maybe, just maybe, the tiniest bit pathetic). )

Can it— can you ask it to let us out?

[she walks over to the bars, closer, looking at him. studying him, is what that blood red gaze is doing. remembering what happened. ugh. if there was anything in her stomach, she'd be nauseous from the conflicting emotions in her.]

We can only open one more before the cavalry will take notice and show up. Why you, Steve Harrington?

[she had done the decent thing of tracking down his name.

why him, and not anyone else here. people whose skills she knows, that she would rely on.]

( why him indeed.

it's a tough question, and a tough sell. he knows it is. why him, when there are so many strong people around him? he doesn't want to explain that he thinks it's a good tactical decision to send someone like him first. if he can get out there and make a difference, if they can find a way to get people's powers back, wouldn't it be better, then, to have the stronger people waiting in the wings for their chance to actually save people?

but there's another reason, and it's one he's a little ashamed to admit to. somehow it's also the only one he's willing to admit.

he lowers his voice and leans in closer, so only she might be able to hear him. )

Back in the Village... I— I messed up. I really messed up. I need to fix it.

( and just in case it helps: )

Please.

[as much as it might shame him, it is the only reasoning that would get to her, a knife neatly slid between the ribs the way she had taken him out. she closes her eyes briefly, and screams inside her mind. some wretched twisting of agony in there. every fiber of her body wants to reject him, to be cold and ruthless and walk over to someone else. and yet. and yet.

I really messed up. I need to fix it.

how in the nine hells is she supposed to refute that? if it were guilt alone, she could shoulder it and move on. not this bright spark of understanding. when she looks at him again, there's a thread of pain she can't hide, knowing what she's going to say, and hating herself for it.]

...if I do this for you, promise me one thing. If I tell you to run, you run.

[no damned heroics in the name of atoning for what he did. there's only room for one person like that in the party.

stepping back, she nods to Guatauva, and for the third time today, light and static and ozone and lightning burn their way into everyone's senses.]

Yeah. I promise.

( it's a lie. for a split second he worries she might be able to tell but then there's a flash of static and a light so bright he throws his arm up to shield his eyes.

and then... they're free. easy as that.

he looks from the woman to the cat, then back again. )

Thanks. I mean it, I won't forget this.

Great, now that we're all in agreement.

[Her voice is quiet as she comes back to the fold. Max isn't anywhere to be seen, but she can't dwell on that right now. That Malin bitch is going to pay for everything she's done and it will be painful.]

[Natsuno's usual flat stare becomes more intense when Steve begs to be let out. He says nothing, but when the bars melt, he takes a deep breath and step aside.]

Thank you. [To Fever, to Guatauva, to Steve who spoke up.] We're making this count.

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END GAME: THE COUNTDOWN STARTS

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