A/N: Hey guys! So, this is just a one-shot spinoff from 'Red vs. Blue: Author's Edition', by UnknownNemesis98 – and if you haven't read it yet, you should! Anyway, this is just what I think will happen in the aftermath of Episode 12, told from my character's POV.
A shout-out to Spritey, who also wrote a one-shot based on the aftermath of Episode 12, and who let me use some of her lines. Thanks! xD
It was cold. So, so cold.
It was dark, too. So, so dark.
She could hear nothing but the sound of her own breathing – short, shallow, stuttering pants that only just satisfied her lungs, as though the air were too thin. There was a quiet hum beneath her, a small quivering in the cold, metal floor that somehow pulled all the warmth away from her body. She couldn't see anything, but her vision was not black – though she wished it were. Instead, she saw the blinding, blue-white light that had enveloped her and drawn her upwards, an unwilling moth to the cold light.
She couldn't move – or at least, she assumed she couldn't. Her body lacked the energy, and perhaps also the motivation, to deviate from the absolute motionlessness that the cold caused within her. The light had slowly drawn her energy away from her – or at least that was how it had felt. She had felt drained, and then lost consciousness as she rose into the Covenant warship. Now, the quivering floor drew all remaining heat and energy from her body, slowly but surely.
And it was so, so cold.
Suddenly, something touched her arm. Smooth and hard, it gently tapped the inside of her wrist. She would have turned her head to look at it, but she could not see.
"Lili?" the voice was quiet, a small breath. Lili felt a relieved smile break out across her face and she turned her head, sight or no sight.
"Spritey?" she replied, just as quietly. The tapping stopped, and Lili heard the person gasp.
"Yeah, it's me! Thank God you're awake," Spritey told her, and Lili could hear the grin in her voice.
She held back a cry. The urge to sob or laugh or cry out was almost overpowering in her relief and excitement, but she didn't have the energy. The cold was taking it from her. They were silent for a long moment, and Lili knew that the fellow Blue felt the same as she did, but they could not make a sound above a whisper. In her memory of before they had been taken, Lili remembered a Covenant warship hovering above – and if they were prisoner inside it, then it was better to stay as quiet as they could.
She had remained motionless, and finally she felt Spritey nudge her again. "Don't fall asleep on me again, Lili," she teased lightheartedly. Lili snorted softly, but otherwise didn't respond.
After a moment though, she couldn't hold back her curiosity – and, though she was loathe to admit it, her fear – and she asked the question that weighed most heavily on her mind.
"Spritey?" she began softly. Beside her, Lili felt her companion shiver. Spritey was cold, too.
"Yeah?" she responded quietly.
"Can you see?" Lili asked. Her voice broke with the weight of her fear – was she blind, forever? She waited, unmoving, for her answer.
"No," Spritey said. She sighed. "I can't. All I see is… light."
Lili nodded slowly, and run her tongue over her dry, cracked lips. Quiet relief had flooded through her at Spritey's answer; she was not the only one without her sight.
Time passed slowly, and by the time they spoke again any amount of time could have passed – an hour, a minute, even a day. In the cold darkness, Lili lost track of it all.
"Are the Reds here?" she asked. The question had occurred to her some time ago, as her memory had pulled forward images of three red figures being drawn towards the warship. And then, the beam had turned to their base; she had dived out of the way, but too slow. Much, much too slow.
"Yeah," Spritey answered. She raised her voice fractionally. "Zoey? Ace? Guy?"
A light sound of shuffling answered, and then they replied.
"We're here," a Red answered softly. Lili recognized the voice of Zoey.
She was relieved that the Reds were there. Sure, they were traditional enemies and had been trained to kill each other on sight, but now… well, it seemed that they had a much bigger problem to deal with.
More time passed, the only sounds the quiet, ever-present hum beneath them and their own shallow breathing. Slowly, bit-by-bit, her vision returned slightly and she could have cried in relief. The whiteness dulled to a dark gray, and Lili could soon make out shapes. She saw Spritey, cross-legged and with her back against a wall and the Reds huddled together on the other side of the cell.
For that was what it was – Lili could even make out the smooth bars of their cell door. A lighter shade of gray beckoned from beyond it, and she assumed that something was lighting the hallway outside their door.
Along with her vision, her will had returned. Lili readied her muscles slowly, and tried to move them. At first they responded stiffly, but the tension disappeared after a while. She gathered herself and sat up, leaning against the wall to recover her strength. The Reds glanced up, and Lili knew that they too had recovered their sight. Lili was about to close her eyes from exhaustion when Spritey stood up. Her eyes snapped open, and she glanced at her team member.
"What are we going to do?" Spritey asked brightly. Lili smiled; that was so Spritey, always optimistic and full of energy, no matter the circumstance. The Reds stirred, glancing at each other, but shrugged. One – Lili recalled her name was Ace - spoke up.
"Well, we can't exactly sit around here all day," she said gruffly. "We should be escaping!"
"Oh, really?" GUY snapped. "I thought the plan was to wait in our cell until the aliens got hungry!"
Zoey placed her hand on GUY's shoulder. "Relax," she told him. "We're all in the same boat, now."
"Besides," Spritey added cheerfully. "They might not be aliens."
Lili repressed a laugh. Despite the fact that the first time they had met, they had fought – almost to the death – she liked Spritey. She brought her quirky sense of humor into every situation, and it didn't hurt that she was a Blue.
After that, there was silence. They were all considering their situation, and trying to formulate a plan. Ace muttered something briefly, though Lili didn't quite catch what she said, and moved to the center of the room.
She settled on his haunches, and paused for a moment. She studied the floor, and then reached into her armour compartment, pulling out something small and black that she identified a moment later as chalk. She glared at the metal floor as though it held all the answers, and rolled the chalk between her fingers.
Spritey's head drooped lower and lower, and her eyes were half-closed. She seemed deep in thought, and so Lili didn't disturb her. She stifled a yawn, and watched with disinterest as Zoey and GUY began a quiet conversation. She couldn't quite hear the words, but they both seemed engrossed in the topic.
Lili turned her head to the side, and spoke quietly to Spritey.
"Do you reckon they're looking for us?" she asked.
Spritey looked at her, her big eyes thoughtful. "Of course they are," she answered softly.
Lili nodded, and turned her gaze back to the front. "Yeah," she agreed. "They wouldn't forget us."
Spritey smiled briefly, and also turned her gaze forward. "They're coming," she breathed. She beamed.
"Petch wouldn't forget about us." Lili looked up as Zoey joined the conversation, leaning forward slightly. "She's a great leader. She wouldn't leave us here, alone."
Ace nodded. "They're coming," she agreed.
GUY laughed, his eyes sparkling. "I bet they're chasing us down right now," he told them.
"They're all probably mad that we left them behind to clean up the mess the warship left behind," Spritey joked. They all laughed, and descended into a comfortable silence. Eventually, Zoey spoke again.
"They're coming," she said, with a sense of finality. They all nodded, believing – no, needing to believe her words.
Silence reigned between them once again, and Lili dropped her chin into her hands, closing her eyes briefly. Beside her, Spritey's eyes were out-of-focus, her thoughts obviously kilometres – hell, maybe even years – away.
In front of her, Zoey and GUY began a low conversation, their words quiet but obviously filled with passion and anger. Lili listened in for a moment, just long enough to determine their topic – in this case, the horrible punishments their captor deserved – until she lost herself in thought, dropping out of the conversation.
It took her a moment to realize that Ace had begun moving, drawing her chalk across the floor in swift, hasty lines. Lili moved forward, looking over his shoulder to peer at what he was drawing. A rough sketch, perhaps of their ship, with lines drawn through it and hasty ideas scrawled around the sides was forming before her eyes. Lili half-smiled and stood up, stretching. It was obvious that Ace was trying to formulate a plan, and she didn't want to interrupt.
She moved to the side of their cell, and ran her hands over the walls. Thoughts and half-formed ideas tumbled through her mind and she dismissed them all impatiently. Her fingers traced lightly over the smooth, slightly curving walls, and she tapped them thoughtfully.
Suddenly, from behind her, Spritey spoke up. "Hey guys, what's better? Oreos or Jaffa cakes?"
"Neither," Lili replied absently. "Chocolate mint ice-cream."
Everyone else also answered Spritey softly, either choosing between the two options or opting for their own favourites, as Lili had done.
But Lili didn't hear them. Her mind was suddenly captivated by the one, vague thought that had drifted, half-formed, through her mind. But as she thought it over, her excitement grew, and she grinned.
It wasn't even a thought, really – just a small, insignificant question. But Lili's smile grew as she remembered her fallen teammate, and she thought that the question might really have been the most significant of all.
Lili turned back slowly, to face them all. One by one, they looked up at her, studying the triumphant grin across her lips and they ceased their conversation. Slowly, she spoke the one, significant question – the one that might hold their answer.
"What would Bluetongue do?"
A/N: Well, there it is! In case ya'll don't know, Bluetongue is an awesome (though dead) Blue that liked to blow stuff up. Do you see where I'm going with this?
Anyway, let me know what you thought and R&R :)