Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine and I don't want them to be.
Ah to be young and stupid again. Not that I'm old or anything...just busy. Anyways, this isn't exactly my return to piece with all it's glory and amazingness, not by a long shot. I don't even know if I'll ever come back to this fandom seeing as where the storyline is heading. This is just a piece that I used to get into my summer writing course. I hope you like it. For reals.
When Tahu woke, normally he was a flurry of activity, a natural sun if you will. But this morning, the alarm clock spoke of silence only, and the drab grayish light filtering in through the curtains was far too dark to be wake up time. The rain merely added to the lazy air. And Tahu didn't move an inch, blinking at the blurry red number, enhanced vision doing nothing for him in the moment.
Next door, a yawn sounded, initiating the routine morning sounds of what should have been a normal morning. But he merely tilted his head, listening as if vaguely interested before turning back to stare at the grey aluminum shade that was closed to the world. Contemplating for only moments, his door slide open, and the lights clicked on, evicting muttered curses from the bed's occupants.
"Get up." The figure in the door Kopaka, he noted, had spoken and another morning began the same old routine.
When Tahu, co-captain of the Nuva division had breakfast, he did it right. Bacon and eggs were the order of the day, topped off with toast smothered in meat sauce of copious amounts. None of that…, oatmeal? Or whatever it was the other captain of his, okay their, team was eating.
As if reading his mind, Kopaka snorted, taking a sip of his…tea. Ew, what a girly man. "Disgusting."
"I could very well say the same of your breakfast." Tahu pointed out to the man seated in front of him, biting off a hunk of bacon with a bit more gusto than strictly necessary. "But I won't, because I'm more mature than y-"
"She's going to make it." Such a simple statement shouldn't have been enough to silence him, Tahu knew that. He had never been one for regretting, well, anything. But here, he found himself pausing, fork extended in mid air solidly, unmoving. "She's been calling for you, just thought you should know that." Kopaka continued on, eerily calm but expectant, shifting the tea bag around in his cup. "It might be nice if you go see her, don't you think?" There was something pointed in his tone, and Tahu found himself wishing it wasn't so.
"And why would I do that, when all I succeed in doing is causing life-threatening accidents for her?" The question shouldn't have come out of his mouth, he knew that, but he'd been off this morning, and nothing was acting as it should have.
"It might be nice if you visited her." Kopaka repeated simply, his pale blue eyes drilling holes in Tahu's head silently. But even before he could speak, Kopaka's gaunt form was already gone, disappearing through the doorway of the already sparsely populated canteen.
"Idiot." Tahu finally hissed out, more to make himself feel better than any real malice he harbored to the other man. Breakfast forgotten, he stood, expression flat and stoic. Some weights in the gym had his name on them.
Ninety, ninety-one, ninety-two, ninety-three….
The steady repetition should have been calming, it normally was. But normally he didn't have a silent audience watching him with silent eyes that could burn.
"She really would like to see you." Kopaka repeated flatly, finally losing some of his icy composure and letting some irritation creep into his voice. All voice inflection was gone from his voice by this time, leaving pure tenor and nothing else behind.
"So you've said." Tahu ground out, teeth clenched as he added more weight before starting up again, the exertion winning only a grunt from him. "Two times before, so this makes three." Talking while training was normally a bad idea, but at this point in time, Tahu was more than ready to give up on any vestiges of normal. "Look Kopaka, I'm picking my moment."
"No, you're taking your time. Or can you not tell the two apart anymore?" And Kopaka's eyes seemed to pale, his gaze narrowing, burn intensifying. "And newsflash Tahu," the last words came out in a sneer, "We're a team. Or have you forgotten the number of times you've expressed this particular sentiment?"
"I'm picking my moment," were the only words he could find in response, knowing full well how fake they sounded, how hollow.
Kopaka rolled his eyes, perhaps sensing the lie. "When I said she was going to make it, that doesn't necessarily mean she's okay. She would like to see you, either way."
The medical wing was familiar enough to him that he could walk down each of the halls and name its general use, the number of doors per hall (fifty, a nice round number), and which rooms of each hall he or a teammate had previously stayed in. Which was probably both a bit obsessive and more than a tad unhealthy, since the medical wing was one of the largest buildings in the complex.
But at the moment, none of that mattered. It didn't matter that this hall was normally reserved for amputees and mine field patients, or that the door he was looking for was number thirteen (not unlucky he reminded himself, no no no). It most certainly didn't matter that a month ago he had been looking for room number twelve for his other teammate (because Lewa had survived, so didn't that mean she was required to?). The additional fact that he had passed the same room thirteen several times now also failed to create a stir in him.
Pausing in step, he stopped before that room, the one he was (somewhat) looking for. Having decided to simply not think about it, Tahu opened the door without knocking, sure that he'd chicken out of it if he waited to hear the answer.
"Look, I'm really not in—Tahu." And then it was pure silence as they stared at each other, just long enough for his mind to remember something he really would have been fine forgetting.
"Clear, over." The ancient headset came to life, cracking loudly and obnoxiously in his ear. Next to him his female partner Gali relaxed, her fingers silently tracing the tiny worn map on the overturned fruit box between them.
"Copy that Kopaka." Gali murmured, soprano voice naturally lilting as she broke periodically broke the monotony with her voice. "Move to B-ten on the next available moment." Blue eyes glancing over the map, her eyebrows creased in concentration. "Pohatu?"
"Yeah?" The cracking of the headset was irritating, but not nearly as bad as the annoying mosquito that. Wouldn't. Go. Away. Tahu ended up slapping himself in the arm and he winced, rubbing the spot and watching it turn a slight pink in the poor lighting of the abandoned building's window. But Gali didn't seem to notice, fully engrossed in her planning as she was.
"Meet up with Kopaka at B-ten, over." She kept her commands pure and simple, and Tahu found himself appreciating that. It wasn't like none of them trusted her, so this was fine.
"Copy that, here I come dear old buddy boy." Tahu couldn't help but snort and smirk simultaneously, imagining the irritated and peeved look on this co-captain's face as he heard that, even as Tahu found himself hopelessly swatting the mosquito. He was bored, simple as that. This had looked to be a pretty low-key and dead assignment within itself when he'd first gotten wind of it, but this was much worse than he could have even imagined.
As if reading his mind(he still didn't get how people could do that), Gali paused in her mental planning, glancing up at him with raised eyebrows even as she moved her mic so that she could speak freely. "The mission is going well, don't you think?" She asked pointedly, not fooled by any pathetic show of interest he was putting on.
"Yep." Was his monotone response, returning her concerned glance with a deadpanned one of his own. "You could say that."
Sighing and rolling her eyes, obviously resigned to his bad mood, Gali returned her attention to the map in front of her. "This is a recon mission, Tahu. If we're luck in there won't be any guns or glory this time."
"True." He admitted. "If we're lucky." Flicking his mic back on, they both set to work once more. "How's it going out there? Over."
"It's going alright. But it's really…quiet. I mean yeah, a few guards, but that's the extent of it. Over." Came Pohatu's puzzled reply moments later.
"That's not right." Gali whispered to herself, more or less mouthing the words to no one in particular as she bent closer. "HQ said they had a considerable number of units posted in this area and to be careful…but…." Her lips pursed downwards, clearly troubled, "There's something wrong here."
"Met up with Pohatu at B-ten checkpoint. All clear, over." Kopaka's no nonsense voice sounded over the static dominated airways, and Tahu forced himself not to mock the other man.
"Hold up, Gali's onto something." Was his only command as he glanced over at his female teammate, who looked a mixture of perplexed and worried. Neither one of them was a great sign by themselves, but together they meant something more, something…worse. And he wasn't going to think about it he decided, no way no how was he going to consider the repercussions if they had already walked into a trap. But the additional observation that Gali was muttering to herself really didn't help her or their cases, if anything it made the whole ordeal worse. There was a problem, and he couldn't lift a finger to fix it. So he did the only thing he could: "Onua, report."
"All quiet down here, over." The silent hulk of the man had barely spoken the whole mission which sometimes worried Gali, but they all knew, the whole team, that if Onua had something worth saying, he was going to say it.
"Lewa?"
"Same, nothing alive down here except for me." The normally carefree soldier hadn't cracked a joke all this time, and Tahu wondered if the brazen young man could feel it in the air, seeping into all their pores as the news kept coming in, dread thick and vicious. "Oh, and a chicken, sorry." Or maybe not, it was hard to tell sometimes.
Gali exhaled sharply next to him, her expression somewhat puzzled still. "All right then. Lewa and Onua, meet up at C-One. Kopaka and Pohatu, move to D-Ten. Tahu and I will attempt to close in on C-Five, over." There was pure determination in her voice, but Tahu wondered if she had just cracked.
"C-Five? Are you sure? Isn't that-?" And even though he had always trusted her before on these matters, he wasn't naïve, and really wanted to live for another day.
"Smack dab in the middle of the field? Yes, in a manner of speaking." Gali smiled vaguely at him, not really seeing the doubtful man in front of her. "If we use reverse psychology, statistical evidence shows that there is less of a probability of us being in the center than elsewhere. So if we were to use this evidence to our advantage, theoretically, there is less danger in the middle of the field than out on the fringes."
"Which means, what exactly?" Her plan was starting to make sense to him, but he needed to flush out the little details so that he wouldn't be caught blind in the middle of some unforeseen ambush.
"Which means, fewer soldiers, traps, guns, surveillance," Gali waved her hand vaguely as she spoke to him, as though fully assured that everything would work out easily as she thought, "Generally just less of everything I suppose."
"Okay then, even though I still don't get it, we're moving." At least she had her head screwed on tight, which was his main worry. A strategist with questionable tactics should always be watched closely as he had found, more or less from personal experience than other sources.
"This plan doesn't need to make sense, to you that is." Gali admonished him, bringing him back to the present. "As long as it works. Besides, something's up, and I need to get a clear idea of what it is. Which I certainly can't out here on the boondocks of A-One."
Picking up on Gali's given mood at any one time was always easy. And this was no different. Sensing his partner's irritation, Tahu paused in his packing to look straight at her. "It's safer out here, you know that. I know that. We'd all be sitting ducks if something happened to you." For a moment, silence reigned, Gali looking very much pleased even as Tahu found his face warming involuntarily
"Is that a confession from the great and almighty Tahu of all people?" A pause, and then. "Wait, I forgot, over." Mentally berating himself, his ears probably fire engine red by now, Tahu turned to finish the packing, and if he was moving a bit more quickly than normal, it was impossible to tell.
"Look Tahu, you don't have to-"
"Let's just go." He muttered gruffly, shouldering both packs before leaving the abandoned building, not even checking to see that Gali was indeed following him.
A twig cracked several minutes later, somewhere between point A and point B. His reaction gave a new meaning to the word freeze as he listened closely for further sounds, only to hear none. So it wasn't Gali that was for certain. Somewhere behind him, the actual Gali called his name, wrenching a painful flinch from the captain, even as he looked for cover.
Gali and her lack of field skills, he wished that he hadn't left her so far behind now. Spotting a certain patch of suitably close together trees, Tahu dived for it, the resulting sound of wood cracking seeming especially loud at the moment.
"Gali!" He hissed as she came into view, sending her into an immediate state of frozen fear before she spotted him, crouching in the underbrush as well as he could.
The following few seconds were something straight out of a horror movie, a silent one, with Tahu just knowing, knowing that something wasn't right, that something bad was bound to happen at any second. It wasn't the greatest feeling in the world he found. Gali's foot moved, lifting up and coming down, his eyes riveted to the spot, silently screaming at her to freeze, years of training not helping the slightest as he found himself helpless and without enough time to do anything.
The resulting explosion of light burned into his retinas, the sound deafening him, sending everything into a surreal white grey glow, as if all color had been bleached from the surrounding landscape. Nothing was safe.
But only one word was on his tongue, on his mind, as he screamed into the whitening oblivion, into the wall of sound and light, a desperate defiant wail that repeated and repeated, even as he attempted to move, and found he could not.
"GALI!" The airborne broken body of his teammate was invisible in the flash, and Tahu was almost grateful for that.
All things considered, having gone through a landmine, Gali, the strategist of the Nuva division was in pretty good condition, waist up that was. Tahu didn't dare look much farther than that though, and he felt the thick rolls of dread coiled in his stomach all heavy and burning, making him sick even as he looked at her. He had caused this.
"Gali." He found himself croaking, hating the dry rasp of his suddenly sand dry throat. "Erm, how-" and then he stopped. Because asking the question could only be considered insensitive. "I'm sorry." He groaned, agony and pain finally overtaking him as he took that single step, that simple easy step over to her side that he could have done so long before. "I'm so sorry," He repeated, "I should of known that there was a—" None of it was coming out right, and Tahu tried again. "I should have checked—" and nothing was working, that was the sad part. "I should have saved you." He finally finished lamely as he ground to a halt, silently pleading her forgiveness even more urgently than aloud.
But she was smiling, and that stilled something in him. Gali was smiling. Not a malice laced draught of poison, but a nice smile, a peaceful one.
"I'm really glad that you finally came." Was all she said, grasping his hand gently, firmly, silently forgiving him.
"Finally?" Managing to crack a joke, Tahu found a smile, abet a weak one, make its way to his face.
"Hey, all that matters is that you've finally made it." Gali grinned right back at him, the sure sign of all forgiven.
Gag, cough, hack, etc. Okay now that you've read possibly one of the most cliche endings I've ever written, please review. I would really appreciate it.