the phoenix

As if the reverberation of a gunshot in a narrow space was not enough to still the movements of everyone caught amidst a calamitous scene, the scampering of masked bodies and their abandonment became enough to draw confusion. They retreated like mice, skittering away through the singular narrow entrance before it locked soundly behind them, effectively trapping the lot of captives once more within a sealed metal tube. One which now sported a distinct hole in the engine due to the weapon Sera managed to wrestle from the singular figure who remained. It permeates the air in a matter of moments, the distinct odor of engine exhaust laced with a faint acidity only very few of them might recognize as carbon dioxide. The metallic object within her palm trains upon a captor turned hostage, daring him to move against them with both expression and barrel. “How do we leave?” He replies with a cough, the faintest hint of a near sickening smirk laced upon unfamiliar features, “You don’t.”

Arm braced around her chest, Luna froze where she stood, free palm facing the air before her. Eyes shut, she felt the warm, wet dampness of someone else’s blood on her stomach and hip, body frozen s the gunshot’s echo faded- quite like everyone’s diminished patience. She was cold, standing in the hull of some glorified dingy, trapped naked in a room with people she hardly knew, if at all. Luna’s hazel eyes shot open as the ship lurched; the gunshot killed its unsought target, sending her forward onto her knees. There wasn’t much to say, much to do, much to look at. The low hiss of toxic air filled the space left behind by the ghoul’s words. “Like hell we don’t,” Luna spat, standing slowly, careful to keep her distance between bare bodies. “Like no one’s gonna notice the boat dying in the middle of the lake. They’ll come.” Though she spoke, her words were far from confident. Some time earlier she’d left the lawyers side to mingle, now she stood- practically bare-assed in empty, acrid silence. 

This was not happening. It couldn’t, Jasper rationalized, it simply couldn’t. But if the pain spreading out from his leg wasn’t telling enough as is- it was completely real and they were completely fucked. He hissed quietly with every breath, hands both scrambling to press down on the wound despite clarity to an inebriated mind. “Fuck,” he breathed before squeezing his eyes shut. Jasper backed up shakily, trying to avoid placing all his weight on his left leg and ending up limping back until he felt one of the cold walls surrounding them hit his back. A chill went up his spine from the touch. With something behind him to keep stable, he allowed himself to divert his attention to the people around him. His eyes darted to the gas, then to the man one of the women was threatening. “Why the hell not,” he all but spat, fighting the urge to let his breath hitch as a spike of pain ran through his leg, “they aren’t going to come fast enough. We’re too deep in this damned ship- and he’s wasting air.”

“What are you afraid of?” Ines had asked, hours ago. So long ago now. This. Roe thinks, but no he hadn’t thought to fear something this extreme. He couldn’t have predicted chaos that has currently enveloped the ship. He’s been teetering on the edge of dissociation since he stumbled upon the slaughtered body—carved up like an animal. Panic had followed with the bag shoved over his head, but perhaps it was better, he didn’t want to see what could possibly come next. But the horrors kept emerging as Roe is gifted his sight back. Jasper’s face is a flash of familiarity in a situation that is too foreign for Roe to believe he’s really experiencing it right now. Mind reeling, and eyes scanning, everything feeling too slow and silent—dreamlike— until there’s the deafening shot of the gun, engulfing Roe’s shout of protest. But it’s too late. Bullet fired, blood spattered, a hiss of pain, that still not enough to divert his attention away from the clang of shattered metal now releasing gas into the room. That’s likely deadly, Roe’s mind helpfully chimes in, toxic at best, but too big a task to think about conquering right now, his body still trembling as the gunshot echoes over and over again in his mind.  He diverts his attention to a problem he does know how to fix, stripping his top layers off as he moves towards Jasper. Down to his undershirt, Roe doesn’t waste time completely removing it, just holds the thin material between his fingers and starts ripping strips from the hem of it. “Jasper, you’ve done a good job keeping pressure on it, but I need you to move your hands so I can wrap it.” 

Years of training had led up to this moment. Witnessing the horror of a dismembered body had barely phased her- even at the sight of the blind eyes that were meant to be Luna’s she hadn’t shuddered. It wasn’t until the hood was over her head that panic set in. There was nothing quite like being blinded, and if she were being honest, Lennox was quite tired of being kidnapped and abused by men who thought it useful. She could only wonder why it was happening. Even as she’d fought their pulls, she could hear Roe struggling beside her and that was some relief. When the engine room was revealed, she blinked in the glaring light and only took seconds to allow herself to steady her heartbeat and resolve before she fought alongside the woman who was closest to the Kovali underboss. Funny how opportunities arose- and in the sudden chaos of sound at the gunshot she turned, only to be met with black and the body of another, to which she grasped to. Jasper’s voice drew her attention first, the agonized sound so familiar and when she glimpsed blood pouring from the wound she knelt to press palms against it, chest heaving before she looked to the most obvious leader out of all them. “Sera, time to take charge. What the fuck do we do?”

He’s wasting air. As were they all at this point, doomed to either suffocate in the confined space or inhale whatever noxious fumes were emanating from the leaking engine. Finally, without the madness of it all, Sera manages to recognize some of the faces trapped beside her and it brings only the welling of internal panic. She could not allow them to die, each one’s importance more weighted than the last, and as perceptive hues flitted throughout the space, the capo caught wind of Lennox’s determination. “Lenny, wrap him up,” she gestured  using her weapon towards the now unmasked ghoul. “I believe the good doctor came with a tie. Make sure it’s tight, even a little painful if you must.” Attention diverts to the physician in question as she witnesses his attempts at stilling the bleeding for the unfamiliar, yet unfortunately grazed man in the corner. “Roe, are you able to absorb some of his blood and then give the fabric to me?” This needed to become a group effort. “We need to stuff what we can into the engine hole to keep the fumes from leaking out.” And then finally, she addressed her next question to Luna, “How tall are you?”

 “Tie him around the throat- limit his air intake. We won’t have much of it soon;  I don’t wanna waste it on this worthless shit stream.” Luna took a slow breath through her nose, hazel eyes flitting about the room as the others concerned themselves with other matters. It was a sterile room, large and stark white; it would be one hell of a place to die. A chill danced up her back, bare feet like ice crossing the painted concrete floor. Though safe from the lake, the engine room was certainly beneath the surface of it. The forecast swore a freeze; the churning water around them gave a solemn, silent promise to freeze them. There wasn’t much Luna knew academically, but she did understand a fair bit about little, odd things. One thing she knew that most didn’t; risk of carbon monoxide related deaths was higher during the winter time, when engines roared and worked harder to keep speed. Tubes and wires coiled along the walls and lead up and into the walls that sealed them inside the deadly room- all outlets sealed. Luna turned back to the commotion behind her, crossing toward the pile of clothes the good doctor left in his wake. “I’m borrowing your shirt, doc.” she remarked, bending forward. Turning her back toward them she buttoned the crisp garment over her slim form, the size of the button-down dwarfing the woman now wearing it. Body jolting with a shudder, Luna moved toward the man tied, kept in the makeshift brig that sealed the lot in their tomb. Bringing her arms across the front of her body, Luna crossed them, brows furrowed at the question that came her way. “Uh??? Five-two? Five-three? Short, okay, I dunno. Why?” Luna asked, shivering again. 

Jasper was hesitant to move his hands from the wound, but if there was anyone in the room who he could trust to know what they were doing, it was Roe. Both his hands shook as he pulled them away. His risked a glance down. In the poor lighting, if one could even call it that, it didn’t look… bad, but he quickly realized he didn’t really have any grounds to base what good or bad bullet wounds were like. Jasper moved to drag his hands down his shirt to get the blood off before the slick feeling of his own blood was on his stomach as well. Oh. That’s right. Underwear only. A shuddering sigh left him before he could stop himself, the sweat on his skin suddenly feeling very cold. “What the fuck,” he mumbled to himself, voice leaning on the verge of sounding hysterical. His eyes darted from person to person, unable to focus his full attention on anything. The blood loss definitely wasn’t helping his cognition- let allow the drugs already in his system. He caught Lennox’s face by him, puzzled as to how she got there, but tried to ignore any distracting thoughts and pay attention to the events happening around him. He was losing blood; he was already at a disadvantage compared to the rest of them. Lennox had clearly dubbed the woman with the gun leader and Jasper didn’t feel like he was in the position to contest, nor did he really want to be, but he narrowed his eyes at her questioning the other woman he didn’t know. “What’s her being tiny got to do with anything?” He asked aloud, before realizing it’d be in his best interest to shut the hell up. Maybe his blood on the strips of Roe’s shirt would buy them time, sure, but such a rudimentary fix wouldn’t last long. It’d be wise to save as much air as they possibly could.

“It’s alright, you’re going to be okay. It’s just a graze, no shrapnel and it didn’t hit anything major.” Roe reassures his roommate, eyes flickering over to the younger man’s trembling hands, and then back down to his wound. It’s easier to focus his entire attention on Jasper and things he knows how to do, but he’s pulled back into the general conversation at Sera’s comment about his tie. He was rather hoping to turn it into a tourniquet, but he understands the appeal of getting their attacker’s hands immobilized. Though he can’t stop the wince and horrified glance at Luna for her suggestion. The man may send horror straight to Roe’s gut but he’s not ready to watch the life drain from him, he’s seen enough death for the night. “I don’t think that’s necessary.” He chokes out, eyes pleading with Lennox as he tosses her the tie, hoping she’ll view the situation with reason, if not mercy. The man may cooperate to having his hands tied but Roe doubts he would allow himself to be strangled without a fight, and Lennox doesn’t need to be wasting her breath exerting herself in such a fight. Speaking of wasted breathes, he sees the rise and fall of Jasper’s bare chest speed up—the man’s panic growing, which could prove deadly. Already having lost so much blood, Roe can’t have his roommate hyperventilating and sucking in more of the tainted air of the room. “Jasper, they’ve got this, they’re going to get us out, but I need you to stay calm and quiet right now. Lean your head back, close your eyes, and take your mind from here. Use a memory, a book, a movie—anything you want—but you focus on that.” He instructs, gathering one of the tethers of his ripped shirt and looping it around Jasper’s upper thigh. “This is going to pinch and create a lot of pressure, but it’ll slow blood from coming to this area of the body right now.” Roe explains apologetically. Once the makeshift tourniquet is secured, he’s able to remove the blood-soaked cloth he’d been holding there and hold it out for Sera, before his attention turns to Luna. “Of course. The shirt is yours to use, but would you mind helping Jasper into the jacket?” Roe requests, already working on getting new bandages around the wound, but wanting to try and keep Jasper’s body temperature up lest he start going into shock. 

There were a great many options Lennox could take- cutting off the air supply of the masked person was feasible, but judging by the pleading on Roe’s face, he was likely to lash out at her if she did something quite the rash. The leaking of the poison in the air should have been enough indication that she do exactly what she’s told and not what she thinks will be best. The problem was, she didn’t want to move away from the wound in Jasper’s leg and though she knew roe was a Doctor, she didn’t trust him just yet. With palms covered in blood, she caught the tie, shifting quickly in the small room to subdue the ghoul and his wrists. Good thing she’d learned how to be breathe lightly in tight spaces- and how to hold her breath if absolutely necessary. Once the masked bastard was properly pinned and tied, with Lennox perched on the joints of his shoulders to ensure he didn’t move unless she wanted him to, she tilted her head back to examine them all again. By her count, three naked. Luna was the body they found. “You and Jas-” she nodded to Sera first, “knocked out and drug somewhere, yeah? Assuming- just like tiny over there-” Lennox was one to talk, “if I had to hazard a guess here, I think the two of you have body doubles somewhere. And from what I know about your partner...we better get you in his line of sight, fast. The carbon monoxide won’t do us in as quickly and brutally as he will.” A muffled noise came from beneath the palm that had pressed over the mask’s mouth, and she grinned before shaking her head. “No talking from you just yet. Is there not a first aid kit around here?”

Once the ghoul discovered himself bound fully, Sera felt a minor semblance of relief if only momentary before regaining her sensibility about the situation. Barely clothed, suffocating to death on toxic fumes, and entombed within the engine room possessing little hope of escape... Minus one alternative. The idea radiates within her mind as she assists the wounded man, Jasper, into said jacket suggested by the doctor himself. Pivoting to address Luna’s exasperation, she is momentarily distracted by the information produced by Lennox–– body doubles, Luna and Jasper also drug from their various positions aboard the Charon. None of it made sense save for one piece: Zephyr’s rage at the anticipation that something occurred to his other half. “He can wait,” she finally managed out, more concerned with their current predicament than potential outcomes. “We need someone to get up there.” Gesturing upwards to the flimsy grate above which housed the ventilation system, she returned attention to Luna. “I’m going to lift you and I need you to push with everything you have to break the grate, and climb inside once you’ve done so. Do you understand?” The plan was, admittedly, ludicrous even to her own ears, but they held no other option to seek out help. “Someone has to get outside of that door and you’re the only one small enough.”

“Body doubles?” Luna whispered under her breath, arms coiling around her middle, praying for warmth the overshirt could scarce provide. “Shitshitshit,” the words fell from her lips in quick succession, her hazel eyes dancing back and forth between the individuals in the room. “Theo and I got separated, so I went to the Billiards room because of Alp- I got this weird message from a blocked number and when I walked out-” She bit her tongue firmly, praying to staunch the panic as it began to flow out of her in waves. Brushing a hand through her dark hair, glancing up at Sera as she spoke. Following her gesture toward the duct above them, dread filled her from the bottom up. She felt the numbness first at her extremities, then up her arms and across her torso, knitting together her apprehension like a thread pulled taut. Still, Luna was their best hope at finding a way out. Stealing her reserve, the woman gave a firm nod. “Fine, but-” Luna began studying overhead. Quietly mumbling as she planned out her path, she took note of which way to turn. Snapping her attention back, she looked between the women before her. “Since we aren’t allowed to shoot him,” she gestured toward the captive, “Can I have the gun? If any of his buddies get in my way, a gun is pretty much my one shot at getting past any of them and save all our sorry asses.”

Jacket snuggly wrapped around him, Jasper pressed against the wall once more with his arms tucked into his chest. It helped, especially since Roe wore a bigger jacket size than him. He merely nodded to the instructions the doctor gave him, not trusting himself to speak without sighing and hissing through his teeth. He lifted his head to watch the others but quickly squeezed his eyes shut when a heaviness rolled over his head. Damn- how much blood did he lose? He couldn’t imagine it was much, but any loss of blood is bad, right? He shook his head loosely to try and clear both his mind and his vision to little success. Instead of looking at the others, he stared down at his bent legs and opted for listening in to their discussion. Trying to think back, what Lennox said added up. One moment he was listening to Nic talk and the next… were more blurred and confused than what he was used to in his little drugged escapades. “Why us three,” he murmured, mostly to himself than to the group, “... it doesn’t make sense.” Jasper narrowed his eyes once more. The man shifted somewhat, letting himself inch down further until one hand found the floor, than the other. With a muffled noise he sat on the ground, eyes trailing over to the bound man. “The hell do we have in common?”

“Thank you,” Roe breathes out his gratefulness at Sera’s assistance as she wraps his wounded roommate in the jacket; though his relief for her presence far extends beyond the simple action. She’s holding the room together, keeping things from completely descending into chaos. And, apparently, she has a plan. Roe cranes his neck around from where he’s still kneeling down tending to Jasper’s wound, staring up at the grate skeptically, but holds his tongue. The plan may be riddled with complications, but Roe doesn’t have a better one and they certainly don’t have time, or breath, arguing. “She has a point about the first aid kits.” Roe acknowledges, tying off the last of the makeshift bandages on Jasper’s leg, before scooting back, giving his roommate space to move into a sitting position and relieve some of the pressure off his leg. “If the boat is up to code there has to be one in this room. I imagine there’d be several masks in it as well.” Lennox had been making several interesting points, though Roe does not voice his concerns about her revelation about body doubles. He thinks back to the body they had found—even carved up, it was worth noting that it was meant to resemble Luna, meaning these people were not chosen by accident. But what cause would they have to pick them? Sera, Roe can hazard a few guesses about, knowing she is in some way connected to the Kovali family. Perhaps, Luna is as well. But, surely not Jasper, right? Roe doesn’t have time to meditate on such suspicions, more important to save the man’s life in the moment than question how well he knows him. “Jasper, if you can I want you to fully lie down, and I’m going to  raise your legs up a little to promote blood flow away from that and towards the rest of your body.” 

Considering their predicament- everyone seemed exceptionally calm. Then again, she knew at least three out of the five people in the room had either been trained for disaster situations or had encountered enough of them to keep a level head. “Luna, take shallow breaths,” she instructed, “and hope you’re not afraid of tight spaces.” Masks were a solid idea, and she nodded to Roe. She wasn’t able to shift off the masked perpetrator just yet- unless she took a chance to knock him out cold. Without waiting for confirmation that she should, she shifted, flipping him onto his stomach before hooking an arm around his windpipe. With his hands tied the struggle wasn’t as much as it would have been and in a few seconds, he stilled. Didn’t stop her from panting with the exertion of it. The lightheadedness came on like a freight train and she groaned, leaning her forehead into the space between the ghoul’s shoulders. “Somebody find the fucking masks, please.” The red glow of the emergency lights gave an eerie air to the entire situation- and maybe it was the poison but she felt like she was going to start seeing things soon and that did not bode well for anyone.  

There were a thousand speculations fluttering about the engine room, mentions of commonality and how others had been taken from their various locations and implanted in the current predicament. Whilst Sera did not intend to regale her own harrowing episode in being kidnapped from Theo’s side, she did internally question what had spurned the decision to choose herself, Luna, and Jasper amongst the masses. Can I have the gun? It’s enough to draw her from any variation of reverie and whilst it clutches tighter within her palm, she considers how much more useful the other woman might find it compared to Sera. “Do you know how to use it?” Even as she questioned, the capo handed it gingerly to her counterpart before wincing slightly as her vision fuzzed momentarily around the edges. “We need to get you up there. Now. Doctor, can you help me? I don’t think––” Lennox’s exhaustion at subduing their remaining captor suddenly apparent, dark hues peered through the red overlay surrounding them to witness their immediately dire straits coming to fruition far sooner than she anticipated. “I won’t be able to lift her alone, not like this.” Vertigo is rising, she can feel it clambering up her spine and threatening to seep into her line of sight once more. Lowering herself ever so slightly to clasp at Luna’s thighs, she awaits Roe’s assistance to raise their petite member towards the ventilation system above.

She stood, shivering in her own silence. The others were talking, that she knew, but their voices seemed distant. Hazy. Dark gaze shifting from face to face, the woman took a step back as Lennox apprehended the bastard behind their imprisonment. Everything had been normal moments ago, but the longer she stood in their noxious coffin, the more fleeting her senses became; cold feet could scarce feel much but the firmness of the floor beneath her, ears slow to pick up speech, eyes seeming to lull back and forth. In an instant, the fog lifted, words reverberating from beside her. "Safety off, aim, fire." Luna said simply, gaze locked on some near distance rather than the girl in front of her. Finally, she turned, looking up at Sera for a moment. "Not my first rodeo." Hand coming away from its crossed position at her torso to lace around the handle of the pistol. Luna clicked the safety into place and held the cuffs of the shirt sleeve firm in her free hand. Not much made sense, but fabric on steel had a much better chance of gliding than cold, clammy flesh would. Luna shifted a bit, holding her arms above her head as two sets of arms coiled around her legs and hoisted her high. Barrel of the gun in her hand, Luna swung the butt and cracked the hinges off the grate. She wiggled her fingers through and pried the latticed screen away. Careful to toss it away from any of her fellow captives, Luna let it fall with a loud bang. Arms up, she pulled herself up, rocking back and forth on her elbows to get a firmer grip. Setting the gun down in the grate for better use of her hands, Luna winced at the cold metal as it bled through the shirt, core tight as she slipped into the narrow space. "Push my feet, I'm almost in!" She called, wincing at the echo that reverberated in the sterile metal cocoon that surrounded her. 

At Roe’s suggestion, Jasper bounced his head in a nod. He tried to turn and slide down onto his back gracefully, but his limbs had become uncooperative. His back hit the ground a bit harder than he would have liked and he groaned in response, his eyes squeezing shut once more. It was becoming more and more difficult to focus on anything around him. The sound of something crashing in the room made his shoulders jerk, but he couldn’t bring himself to lift his head and investigate. The loss of blood made stars fill his vision, he felt clammy all over, and the urge to breathe in deep had finally left him but was replaced by his body taking in quick, uneven breaths. Definitely not his best moment. Jasper balled his hands up and stuffed them into the jacket, trying to avoid shivering. 

His attention is immediately snapped away from Jasper as Lennox maneuvers their former attacker onto his stomach, arm snaking around his neck. Roe feels his own breath stutter in panic as if hes the one being strangled, heavy tongue slow to find his voice and limbs uncooperative as he tries to find his footing so he can move her off of the thrashing man, "Stop!" Lennox does but its of her own accord, releasing her grip only as the man stops struggling. Roe's knees crash haphazardly against the cold ground, his body leaning as far away from Lennox as he can while still being close enough to allow trembling fingers press against the pulse points of the man's still bound hands. It's there, faint but present, beating steadily- ironically probably now more controlled than anyone else's breathing in the room. He falls back, trying to bring his own heart rate back down, fixing Lennox with a perplexed look. Who was she? This woman who yielded violence so naturally, but had looked at Jasper with such concern in her eyes? Sera doesn't spare time for his contemplations redirecting him back to the task at hand of getting Luna up into the vent. Roe nods, knowing none of his questions will ever be answered if they all die here. Supporting Lunas other side they raise her slowly up, Roe feeling his vision swim and closes his eyes, placing his focus entirely on the task and pushing down the rising nausea. He wants to respond to Lunas, tell her to be careful, but it takes all the energy he has to reach back up and gives her legs an extra boost up. His vision disappears again, this time without having to close his eyes. Dropping his arm back down he finds himself collapsing down completely into a crouching position, palm pressed flat against the ground to steady himself. 

The cacophony was giving her a headache- maybe it was the gas- it didn’t matter what the source was. “He’s not dead,” she muttered to Roe as he panicked, “He’s not dead!” The exclamation bounced around the room and she shoved at him to go and assist Sera. With the minor threat in the room knocked out, she felt she could relax enough to shift back over to Jasper. She watched as Luna was lifted into the grate. Vision hazy, she shifted until she could lift Jasper’s head and lay it in her lap. “Can we fill the hole in the engine with something? Cloth?” Her stomach rolled  and the utter exertion it was taking to keep conscious was beginning to wear her resolve. Shallow breathing did nothing when the air itself was filled with poison. She stayed a few moments more, brushing Jasper’s hair off his forehead before she lifted herself and set him down carefully. She had to find the masks and the health kit or they were fucked. Clambering along the wall, she blinked as she felt around- the red glow doing nothing but worsening the tension in her forehead. Finally, her hand fell on a box with cross over top. “Here, she yanked it off the wall and slid it toward Roe, “health kit. The masks should be here.” There were four- behind a glass case and attached to the wall. “For fucks sake-“ she yanked off her stiletto and pounded the tip against the glass but it didn’t shift. “Sera, help.”

As soon as they’ve raised Luna into the ventilation system, a minor breeze of fresh air emanates from the open hole in the ceiling above and Sera manages to inhale what she believes might be her last supply of untainted oxygen. Something overcomes her then, a last ditch effort in survival perhaps, as she returns to the situation in the engine room to view various features illuminated in a faint red glow. Her head swims from both the poison lingering in the air and the disorienting light, unsteadily lifting the cloth abandoned by Luna and forcing it into the hole with her best ability. If they can just filter it for a minute… Just a few moments. Someone calls for her assistance and she pivots with less grace in comparison to her natural movement, near stumbling as the brunette attempts to narrow the distance between herself and Lennox. “Give it to me,” but she’s hardly asking, the pointed heel swiped from her counterpart. “Move, there’s going to be glass.” Once more she does not await confirmation nor obedience before utilizing her final surge of strength to smash the case of masks into a fragmented mess upon the floor. Fingertips reach in hesitantly, plucking one… two… three… Allah help them. The fourth, now held between nimble fingers which detected a distinct hole torn in the protective fabric, though she crumples it within her palm and shields its destroyed state from the others’ vision. “Doctor.” She tosses two masks in his and Jasper’s direction before relegating hues back upon the woman at her side, the third mask dropping into Lennox’s hand. “Here.” Her own remained curled and hidden from view, the capo attempting to breathe shallowly as her shoulders rested against the wall, lids fluttering.