secretlystephaniebrown prompted: Kai gets to Chorus just in time to say goodbye to her big bro
Honestly considering how much I just adore the Grif Siblings, I feel so attacked right now by those who I thought were my friends when it comes to this Angst War. Steph, how could you.
Red vs Blue and related properties © Rooster Teeth
story © RenaRoo
Unspeakable Things
She almost boosted a ship after the transmission went out across all of known space. It would have, perhaps, made a good bookend for the wild story of her time in the supposed-military to begin with, starting with a supposed stolen ship, ending with an actual stolen ship.
But as it turned out, the UNSC wasn't all that big of keeping former Project Freelancer troopers around more than they had to. The second she burst into the closest port to Blood Gulch and yelled out that she needed to see her brother on this tiny, useless planet called Chorus, they nodded and accepted.
There were bigger things for them to worry about after that transmission.
No one really cared what Kaikaina Grif did.
That all changed when she reached Chorus.
On Chorus, from the moment she took her first step off her ship and announced who she was, she was being treated with awe and spectacle. Like royalty to the people of the tiny planet in their battered and broken armors, with their gaunt faces and wavering stances.
She was used to getting attention, but what Chorus gave her was, quite franklyjust weird.
And as she carried herself forward in spite of the strange, gawking stares, and demanded news on her brother, she found herself turned around by a firm hand.
Kaikaina's eyes narrowed immediately – she would recognize that black and yellow armor anywhere. She never forgot a cop when she saw one.
"You?" she snapped. "Is my Big Bro under arrest or something?"
The man stared at her, helmet off, his face looking as gaunt and tired and unshaven as the rest of Chorus she had seen so far.
"You're… Grif's sister," he said, as if it was news.
"Yeah, duh." she snapped at him.
"From the canyon," he clarified.
"You have to tell me if you arrested my brother or not," she continued, hands firmly on her hips. "It's, like, one of my rights. So give 'em up, cop!"
There was a bit of a crowd gathered as the man looked at her with red rimmed eyes. He took a careful, calculated breath before grabbing her arm by the elbow and quickly dragging her down the road.
Kai kept in step as best she could, stumbling every now and then as she whined at him.
"This is brutality! Stop it! It's scary. And kinda hot. But I need to see my Big Bro–"
"Listen, I'm going to explain on the way so that when we get there you have… all the time you need," the man said in harsh tones. He looked at her and something on his face, while still hardened, seemed almost apologetic. "You can't butt in every couple of seconds while I'm doing this."
"That's what she said–" Kai attempted to joke.
"I'm serious," he snapped at her. He pulled her faster, people were getting out of their ways, as if everyone was aware of something Kaikaina was not – or at least was refusing to acknowledge.
"Fine," she spat.
"Your brother, your… our friends. They saved this planet," he explained. "But they did so by getting trapped on a warship with the enemies. It crashed in the middle of a firefight they were in and… and things have been hairy since then for all of them." He looked like he was in literal pain as he pulled her tighter and they rushed through the swinging doors of one of the larger buildings. "Some didn't make it."
"Didn't make it to what?" she growled. "You're not making any sense. Where's Big Bro–"
They are going up stairs and turning corners before the "cop" spins her around and pushes her back against a wall. Kaikaina wants to joke about it but, honestly, she's not n the mood.
He's successfully scared the shit out of her.
"What's going on?" she begged.
"Dexter Grif is in the room I'm about to take you in," he explained lowly. "That's going to be your brother on that bed. He responds to things, so I know he's at least aware of what's going on around him for now. You cannot panic him. Youcannot freak out."
Kai stared back at him. "I can recognize my own brother, jackass," she replied, grasping at her fleeting defiance like a comfort food.
The man stared back at her and it was that same damned expression – Kai finally found the word for it, and she hated it – pity.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked.
"Because these rooms," he said, nodding to the hall they were in, "they are what's left of my family, too. And I know your brother loves you something fierce, and you seem to feel the same, but I don't know if you can handle what's about to be inside that room. And the worst thing for all of us is if something happens in there that we regret for the rest of our lives."
There are thick, blubbering tears in her vision, but Kaikaina just swallows and looks at the man.
"Is he dying?" she asked, feeling whatever hold she had left on nonsensical humor and defiance slipping through her fingers.
Closing his eyes, the cop took a breath and hung his head.
"They think so. Yeah," he replied.
She gave him a look over before harshly shoving him aside. He went with the shove and just turned to watch as Kai slowly walked toward the rooms. The doors were closed to each of them, there was a cluttered ambush of machine noises she hadn't realized were so loud before and she looked at each room carefully.
By the third door, she heard the man in black and yellow armor finally say, "That one."
She swallowed and reached for the doorknob, turned it, and pushed the rest of the way through to the inside.
For daylight, the room was dark. There were only two of the several overhead lights on and they were close to the door. The only light on around the bed and machines was a dim light on the wall behind the bed.
Kaikaina's eyes shifted around the bed. There were several machines, things she'd seen in movies and some things that were foreign even to that. And a bag of blood was hanging in the midst of it all – it was almost empty and she didn't see another pack hanging in wait.
As she cautiously stepped near the bed, she forced herself to look at who was hooked up to all the equipment.
He looked shorter than Kai remembered her brother being. There was hardly an inch of him that was not covered in bright white gauze and wrap, and there were several layers of what looked like balloon poppers over his body.
For some reason she couldn't even find a hand to hold onto.
The few areas that weren't wrapped up included his eyes and his mouth, but even his mouth was filled with a tube from one of the machines.
Suddenly, Kai realized she had been counting up all the reasons she couldn't recognize him therefore he couldn't have been her brother, and those harsh words from the cop seemed all the more real.
When she got lost in those thoughts, it made her extra jumpy as one of the eyes she could see, bloodshot and dull, opened.
They stared at each other for a moment, Kaikaina shocked and surprised, her brother perhaps too tired or too drugged to really process her.
The silence lasted for several beats until Kai leaned forward, letting her hair hang over her shoulder as she laid one hand around her brother's pillow and shakily smoothed her fingers over his well wrapped forehead.
"Hey," she whispered to him. "Hey, Big Bro. It's me."
His dulled eye stared at her before beginning to flutter closed. It took a few moments before Kaikaina realized he was fighting it.
"Shh shh shh," she whispered, smoothing his forehead again. "No it's okay. You're tired. I'm here. Just… just go to sleep," she told him. "I'm already here. So it's all good. And I've got… I've got lots of stories to tell you. I'm not no war hero or nothing, but I threw a bunch of wild parties. Oh, man, and let me tell you all the cool stuff going on on the news. It's all about you! And then you can tell me why this planet's so fucking weird about Grifs. I think they worship you."
She bit her lip, her big blubbering tears returning with force. "But you're… you're so tired. I'm going to let you sleep, okay? We can do that whenever, right?"
By the time she wiped her eyes and was able to look to her brother's eye for an answer again, it was already shut.
Kaikaina felt a little something inside her break loose and she pressed her face into her brother's pillow.
And then she waited.