Eggsy was glad of the fight, glad he had Poppy and Charlie's metal arm and a few dozen henchmen and the two fucking robot dogs Harry was fighting alongside...was that Elton John? Anyway, as long as they were moving, fighting, saving the world (saving Tilde) he could focus on that, focus on the fierce strikes and blocking bullets with the briefcase and using his watch to hack the arm and send Charlie up the tree.
But it still hurt because as much as he was trying not to think about it, the fact remained that Merlin, his colleague and friend, the closest person to him besides Roxy, at least inside Kingsman, was dead. And not dead like Harry had been, hit in the head by a bullet thousands of miles away from where Eggsy had watched and screamed, but dead here, dead now, dead in Eggsy's place, dead to buy them time and a clean opening, going out singing without even getting to use the actual machete that he had pulled out with such a gleam in his eye on the plane.
Eggsy picked himself off of Charlie's limp body. He almost tripped backwards, grunting as someone off of his two o'clock shot at him, the bullet flying wild and hitting him square in the ribs. It didn't break into his chest, the bullet proof fabric protecting him, but it still hurt. There'd be a good bruise tomorrow. Three more cracks shattered the tentative quiet that had fallen and he ducked his head behind his arm. Whoever was shooting had to be injured or just a lousy shot- these bullets were just as wild as the first and although dust kicked up around his feet, none of the bullets even touched him.
Turning and scooping up the target suitcase, Eggsy found Harry emerging from a retro- style beauty salon and looking as if he hadn't had a good time- his suit was spattered with makeup and nail poilsh. The older spy picked up a gun from the ground and as one they turned back towards Poppy's Diner.
By the time they walk out of the diner (fifteen minutes and thirty four seconds since they went in, by Merlin's fancy hacking watch but it felt like it had been hours) Eggsy was actually having to focus on keeping his hands from shaking. He had been wrong- had accused Harry of being wrong, had yelled at him- and Harry had been right about Agent Whisky and they had almost paid a very high price. They had almost not saved the world again- but they had. There was so much relief and anger and grief inside he felt like his chest might explode. Hence the shaking hands.
He caught Harry watching him out of the corner of his eye and shoved his shaky hands in his pocket, looking around for where he had abandoned his briefcase. It only took him a half second to find it, still unfolded into a portable bulletproof cover and half under a guard in an atrocious letterman's jacket with a bullet hole through the school emblem. Eggsy's half bent over to pull the briefcase out from under the man's legs when there's the sharp crack of another bullet being fired.
Generally, Eggsy wouldn't worry too much about this except that Harry's out here as well and since there's now a small nick in the top of his ear and blood already dripping down.
"Fuck!" he swears with passion and yanks the bullet proof paneling all the way into the open, using it for cover as he moves towards Harry. Harry's head had snapped up from his examination of Charlie's body nearby when the shot had rung out and was already moving across the body strewn terrain towards Eggsy. Another shot, this one bouncing off of the suitcase at Eggsy's head height.
Harry and Eggsy rendezvoused in the center of the abandoned "street" a few dozen meters from the gates, turning in a coordinated movement to locate the sniper. "You all right?" Harry asked courteously as he pulled a pistol from its holster.
"Never better," Eggsy growled. At least the new burst of adrenaline had wiped out the hand shaking. The suitcase screen flashed once, pinpointing the shooter on the roof of the nearest building. "Looks like he needed to move forward to make his shot," he nodded at the sniper. "Ready?"
"Ready," Harry said and they pivoted, Harry raising the gun smoothly and pulling the trigger.
Snap. The sound of an empty chamber echoed across the otherwise silent grounds.
"Shit," Eggsy calmly stated and they pivoted back to get the most cover possible, both agent's free hands flying as they searched for weapons. Eggsy's mind was running at a million miles a second- no bullets, second and third pistol were also empty from the fight with Charlie and the guards at the gates, Harry was running through pockets of nearby guards but there were no weapons near them on the ground, their watch darts couldn't reach that far, and the suitcase had only held so many missiles. There was extra ammunition in the suitcase itself, but to get to them would mean closing the suitcase and costing them their cover. They'd have to get somewhere else first. "Harry," Eggsy hissed. "We've got to get to cover."
"Or at least over there," Harry nodded towards the closest group of downed guards, an assault rifle lying near them.
"Right," Eggsy glanced at the uneven terrain littered with bodies. "On the count of three, we-"
A gunshot rang out and they both instinctively flinched behind the shield but trained as they were, it took only a fraction of a second to realize the sound had come from somewhere else and a few seconds longer to watch the shooter crumple and fall from the roof, dead.
The spies turned in unison towards the gates and raised their weapons, useless as they might have been in that moment.
The new sniper was propped half behind a crate just inside the gate, elbows out to help aim the long rifle all the guards carried. His face was tight with pain and black with soot, but his teeth shone white for a half second as he flashed the tiniest of smiles, sun glinting off a pair of cracked Kingsman spectacles.
"Merlin," Harry breathed and forgoing safety for the moment, he and Eggsy dashed across the grounds, the younger man folding up the flapping suitcase as they went.
The closer they got, the worse everything looked; Merlin's hands were shaking and he looked to be gripping the gun for stability as much as for protection. The soot covered up streaks of red burns and a cut behind his ear was still steadily oozing blood. There were rips in his shirt, making the burns, bruising, and blood underneath that much more visible. Merlin wasn't wearing his suit coat and for a small second Eggsy thought he had lost it in the explosion but the moment they cleared the crates they could see real reason why.
Both of Merlin's lower legs were gone. The sleeves had been liberated in strips from the rest of the jacket and tied just under his knees, probably as tight as the injured spy could manage. The skin and flesh under those points was red and black and coated in mud. Harry and Eggsy both looked up towards the woods as they rounded the last boxes; there was a path of blood darkened dirt all the way into the treeline from where they stood over Merlin.
"Jesus Christ, Merlin," Eggsy knelt next to him as Merlin's arms gave out, dropping the spy from his position half propped on the crates and flipping him onto his back as one shoulder hit the corner of a crate hard. Eggsy pried the gun from the handler's tight fingers and started gently probing the edges of the cuts littering Merlin's torso. The older man shuddered at the contact and Eggsy winced; Merlin's eyelids had fluttered to half mast- he had lost a lot of blood already, the ground beneath him stained dark.
"Harry, we've-" Eggsy looked up to find Harry frantically typing away on the keyboard of Poppy's laptop in the pink briefcase. "What-"
"Disabling the land mines. Telling Ginger Ale to get the jet running remotely and have a full medical team ready for when we get back." Harry snapped the briefcase shut and came over to kneel by Merlin, reaching out to find a pulse point at his neck.
"Right," Eggsy said. He yanked off his own suit jacket (gentlemanly good looks be damned for the moment) and ran one sleeve through the handle of the suitcase before wrapping it around his shoulder and under his other arm, essentially strapping the case to his back. "How're we gonna carry him?"
"We can't just take him like this, it'll take too long. We don't have that much time." Harry popped up onto his heels and ran an eye around them. "There- grab that."
Eggsy did as he was told, crossing the empty grounds to take hold of one end of a garish fluorescent sign for a pizza parlor. Despite the color, Harry had chosen well; it was roughly rectangular, had places for them to hold, and was heavy but not horribly so. He had only just begun to haul it back across the street when he heard a loud cry and doubled his speed to a near run, the sheet of metal banging the ground behind him.
Merlin's face was white and the crack in the glasses couldn't hide the fresh tears streaking down his face from tightly closed eyes and clearing paths through the soot. Harry's shoulders were tense, his forehead creased as he put a careful hand on Merlin's own shoulder. "I know, I'm sorry, sorry," Harry said softly and Eggsy winced; Harry had tightened Merlin's weak tourniquets.
"Got it," Eggsy said and Harry nodded. He had pulled off his own suit jacket while Eggsy had been gone and eyed Eggsy's backpack for a second. "Leave the suitcase, we'll come back and get it. It'll only slow us down."
Eggsy united his jacked and dropped the case roughly. "How're we gonna get him on?"
"Carefully, please," Merlin gasped and Eggsy would have laughed if the situation hadn't been so dire.
"Merlin, good to see your eyes. Stay with us, okay?" Eggsy forced a smile as Merlin blinked once, slowly. "Harry?"
"On three," Harry said. "One, two, three!"
Merlin didn't cry out as they moved him, hands on his shoulders and hips, over to the metal panel. Eggsy looked down in surprise and then winced; Merlin had caught his bottom lip in his teeth and bitten it, adding blood to his lips. "Eggsy, your jacket." He tossed it to Harry, who tied one sleeve to his own coat. "Lift." In tandem, they picked Merlin off the ground. Eggsy kept supporting his own end while Harry carefully set the other end on the stack of crates, using their momentary support to tie the joined jackets over Merlin's chest and under the makeshift litter to keep him from rolling off and keep his arms tight to his body.
"I'll take front, shall I?" Eggsy asked and Harry nodded.
"Hurry; we've got to get him out of here. Merlin, you still with us?"
"Mhmm." The spy grunted, but his eyes were still open.
Eggsy carefully turned around so that his back was to the litter and he was holding it behind him, fingers solidly wrapped around the metal where Merlin's feet - his heart dropped uncomfortably- where Merlin's legs were. He could feel the weight increase and then decrease as Harry picked up the other end, near Merlin's head, and gently pushed him forward. "Go."
"Wait!" A voice echoed from behind them. "What about me!"
Eggsy startled, only months of Kingsman training and a year of missions since keeping him from dropping Merlin. He twisted his head around, ignoring the twinge in his ear, and blinked incredulously. Was that… Elton John? In a feathered suit?
Harry muttered something that might have been a curse before turning on a gentleman's smile and casting it towards Elton as he jogged up. "No time to explain. A plane will be arriving within a few hours for you and any others who need to leave. We have to get out of here."
"Now," Eggsy added, in case that wasn't clear.
"Right. I'll just wait, then." The man wandered off and Eggsy cast an incredulous look at Harry.
"Was that Elton John?"
"Prioritize, Eggsy." Harry said, and they finally started moving at a fast walk out of Poppy's little slice of suburbia.
Eggsy had never been so glad to see a plane in his whole life, not even when he had emerged from Valentine's bunker for the first time, ready to leave before everything went to shit. Merlin had saved his life that time. Actually, Merlin had save his life five or six times that day.
Now, his arms were aching from holding the weight behind him during their thirty minute hike through the jungle to the small runway but at least they had arrived. However, they were immediately presented with their next problem. The stairs were already down and there was no way they were getting the litter up them.
Merlin had passed out five minutes ago; the pair had increased their speed several times as the terrain grew smoother, but no time as much as when Harry had suddenly called, "Merlin? Merlin!" in increasingly louder tones and Eggsy had whipped his head around to see Merlin's eyes almost shut, a small sliver of white visible near the bottom and his head rolling limp.
"I could probably just piggyback him up, if you spot me," Eggsy suggested now, looking at the steep stairs.
"I better do it, I'm taller," Harry said.
"Right," Eggsy said. He balanced his end of the litter briefly on the bottom step and untied the suits, slinging them over his shoulder before setting the end fully on the ground. Harry followed suit and reached out to pull Merlin to a sitting position, ready to lift him onto his back. "Wait-" Eggsy reached out and took off Merlin's precious glasses, tucking them into his pants pocket. "Okay."
Harry stood smoothly, transferring Merlin's weight across his shoulders and moving towards the stairs in one movement. Eggsy followed him up, the roar of the jet engines picking up as Ginger Ale remotely fired up the plane, watching to make sure Harry kept his balance and didn't bump the injured man. All went smoothly, though, and a moment later Eggsy was sitting in the cockpit, Ginger Ale giving him a heading while Harry settled Merlin on the cleared pool table.
Despite the speed of the jet and their ability to clean Merlin up a little with what was on the plane ("Sorry", Ginger Ale apologised, "you took one of the planes halfway through refit. It only has our standard medical kit, instead of the updated one"), the agent was still unconscious and looked like hell warmed over when Eggsy landed the plane back at Statesman Distillery.
The moment the engines were whining to a halt, Ginger Ale was there along with Agent Tequila- no longer frozen and without the blue rash coating his hands and face- and a full medical team. Before Eggsy could even get out of the cockpit, they'd rushed Merlin away, already cutting off what remained of his shirt and starting an IV line as they took him towards an elevator set in the wall. Eggsy and Harry were left behind at the bottom of the jet stairs they had worked so hard to get Merlin up hours before.
"Well you two both look like shit," Tequila announced, looking them over.
"I actually can't say the same thing about you," Eggsy said back, the energy needed to form a good insult abandoning him altogether. "Did it work, then?"
"Yes." Ginger Ale holded up her tablet so he and Harry could both see. The news was in full swing, playing clips of those little vials of amber liquid being flown via drone all over the world and streams of people exiting stadiums that had been set up as trauma care centers.
Eggsy's knees almost gave out right then and there, from relief that everything worked, that they at least gotten Merlin back alive, that they had saved- not everyone. Not Roxy. Or the rest of the Kingsmen. But some people at least. He turned to Harry. "I need to go call Tilde. I hope-" he cut himself off. "And my mum and Daisy."
Harry nodded. "I'll go find where they're going to put Merlin and meet you later."
"You both need to get some rest," Ginger Ale cut in, sounding so much like Merlin it actually hurt deep in his chest for the moment. "I'll keep an eye on Merlin for you. Don't worry, we've got a state of the art medical system, like you do overseas. If we can save him, we will."
"You will," Harry affirmed, before adding. "You know about Agent Whisky?"
"I know," she said. "Saw it all on his body mics and cams. We might need to bring those glasses you have into standard Statesman issue- they're a lot clearer than our footage. But yes, we know."
Agent Tequila frowned at the idea of wearing the glasses all the time. "I'll show you your quarters, Agents," he said. "And to the medical bay. I'm sure Agent Merlin will be just fine."
"I hope so," Eggsy said. "I really hope so."