#scoooooooop

Another shot. A shout of surprise and anger and pain, then the crack of lightning tearing the air. A third shot.

The federal interrogators are down, and Ariadne doesn’t understand.

Warm metal, hard and unforgiving, presses against the side of her skull. The muzzle of a pistol.  “Give me one good reason,” the person crouched over her snarls, “not to blow your brains out, fed.” For a heartbeat, she can’t think of a single reason. Then it wells up inside her. “I want to kill them all,” her voice says tonelessly. “All the guards. Let me help you kill them.” It doesn’t really matter what he does with her after that, if he gets Alex out.

After a second, the pressure lets up. Her body doesn’t move, not until the stranger prompts “get up, then.” Then her tired limbs obey. Up onto her knees, then to her feet.

Not a stranger. The name doesn’t come to her head, but she knows the face. He broke her nose once. It doesn’t seem to matter.

He puts the gun into her hand. Her fingers fold around the grip. Familiar. Her hands turn it over, check how many shots she has, check the safety. 

Fury seethes in her chest. She knows what to do.

“You double-cross me, and I’ll break your fucking neck,” their rescuer threatens. Vex, he said his name was Vex. Weird name. Maybe she said that. Maybe that’s why he broke her nose? She doesn’t remember. Ariadne nods. “Just let me at them,” she says. 

Vex hoists Alex over his shoulders, and Ariadne makes a quiet distraught sound at the rough handling. Alex makes no sound at all. 

And then they are out.

Vex, it turns out, doesn’t need a gun to be lethal. Lightning leaps from his palms. His magic throws objects and sometimes people. Ariadne follows his lead. Her body knows how to cover an ally’s advance. Knows how to aim and fire and aim again.

She feels nothing but savage satisfaction. Not even fear when the alarms blare. Vex cusses and growls “alright, change of plans”. Ariadne didn’t know his first plan, she doesn’t know the new plan, it doesn’t matter. She will kill anyone who gets in front of her, and either they will escape or they will not.

But-- “Wait,” she blurts out, “wait, there’s -- someone else.” “Someone else?” Vex glares. “A healer -- kept here. We -- need to get him.” “Nope,” Vex tells her. “I’m here to get the two of you out.” His tone brooks no question. Ariadne’s tongue is heavy. “He’s going to die,” she protests weakly. “They’ll make him heal ‘til he dies...” “We can’t afford to go back. Look, do you want Alex to get out of here or not? Come on, cover me.”

Ariadne doesn’t know what to do. She has to go back, she can’t leave the kid who poured his life into Alex…

But her body drops back into combat readiness and her feet follow Vex and her head spins.

Another confusing burst of gunfire. A frantic sprint. Ariadne’s lungs burn. Then suddenly she is breathing cool night air. Vex chucks a smokestick behind him, slams the fire door shut, and does something with his magic. Ariadne’s eyes watch, and her feet follow when he takes off running again.

“You, shotgun,” he orders, pushing her roughly towards a car. Ariadne’s body moves to obey. Vex dumps Alex across the back seat, and then he’s beside Ariadne, taking the wheel. A muttered incantation and his hands light up with magic for a moment, but it stutters and dies. “Fuck,” he curses. “Bloody useless spell, fucking work already!” Ariadne watches numbly as he takes a deep breath and grits his teeth. Light flickers once more, twice, then surges strong. The car, Vex, Ariadne and Alex all vanish. “Fucking finally,” Vex’s voice grunts, breathless.

The engine makes no sound as it revs up, but Alex whines at the vibrations. Ariadne thinks that awful, hoarse sound should break her heart, but she’s just heard it so much. She has always been a callous monster.

And then they are tearing away, at a pace that steals Ariadne’s breath and makes her afraid for Alex. She can’t even look back and check on him. There’s only the road - unnervingly close - streaming past below them.

“I’m Vex,” Vex tells her shortly. “Long time no see.” “Yes,” Ariadne agrees. “Thank you.” She tries to put her heart into it, but her heart has been ripped out of her chest and the words come out flat. “How come,” he asks, “he’s fucking mincemeat, but they barely touched you?” “I let them see it messed me up,” Ariadne answers bluntly.  Vex grunts, but he says nothing else.

Ariadne’s focus keeps slipping, but she forces herself to watch the buildings and the turns. She should work out where she is. Knowing things is important.

“There’s water and some codeine in the glove box,” Vex tells her as they come off another heart-thuddingly breakneck corner. “Help him out. We’ve got a way to go.” “Yes,” Ariadne promises. “Yes, thank you.” She has to find the glove compartment by touch, closing her eyes against the nausea of failing to see her own hands move. The water bottle is easy to identify, the pills less so. “I… found a blister pack,” she reports hesitantly. “Seven pills out of.. twelve. Is this the codeine?” “Yeah.” Not being able to read the packet is unnerving. She doesn’t want to give Alex an unidentified drug. “Are you sure?” “Of course I’m fucking sure. Only drug in there, isn’t it. I put it there this morning. Quit bitching.” “Yes sir,” Ariadne’s mouth acknowledges reflexively.

She keeps her eyes shut as she climbs between the seats by touch, and settles herself in the footwell behind. Every breath Alex takes is still a whistling not-whimper. Very tentatively she reaches out until her fingers brush his skin. There’s the curve of a cheek, startlingly warm to the touch. There’s hair - and Alex’s position clicks into focus in her mind’s eye. We’re out, she wants to tell him, but the words stick in her throat. What if this is a cruel trick? She can’t lie to him, not again. “Alex, I’m going to give you water now,” she tells him instead. “Water for you, drink carefully.”

His cracked lips barely move to drink. She holds it patiently for him through several halting swallows. He doesn’t whine when she takes the bottle back, and he doesn’t thank her. He hasn’t said anything at all in so long. She keeps talking to him anyway, telling him what she’s doing.

Putting the pills to his lips has little effect. In the end she has to put her fingers in his mouth and press the tablets against his tongue before he starts trying to swallow. Then it’s back to the water, a few careful sips at a time. One time her eyes flick open, she finds she can see Alex. It doesn’t make much difference to anything.

The car stops. Ariadne thinks she should do something, but she doesn’t know what. The door opens and Vex hauls Alex out - a little more carefully, this time. Ariadne doesn’t need to be told to crawl out of the car and follow. “Shut the damn door behind you,” Vex calls over his shoulder. She obeys.

Up the stairs and into a building. Into an elevator and up and up. Ariadne has to remind herself to check the apartment number as Vex unlocks the door. “Safehouse,” he tells her shortly. “No one’s home, we’ve all had a rough time since the raids. You’ll have to make do here until someone can come help you.” Ariadne nods. She has no questions.

Vex carries Alex through to a minimally furnished bedroom, and lays him down with surprising care atop the sheets. Ariadne watches uselessly. Vex nods her to follow, and points out the kitchen and the medicine cabinet to her. He uses small words. Ariadne nods and says “yes” a lot.

And then Vex is on his way, and Ariadne is left alone with an empty safehouse and Alex. Alex who she broke, Alex who is either terrified of her or doesn’t see her at all. Alex who is so, so injured that she can’t imagine being able to make a difference without a healer. 

Ariadne’s limbs shake, but they still work. She takes down the first aid kit, and every box and bottle in the medicine cabinet. Sorts them : useful now, useful later, not useful. She walks into the kitchen and puts water on to boil and walks back to the main room to get the drugs and the sutures.

Alex is going to think that it’s more torture, when she starts cleaning his back. Ariadne feels hollow inside. But her hands will know what to do.