AWWWWYEAH. CHAPTER 2 BABY.

For some reason, I enjoy writing angst. Maybe it's because I'm a passive aggressive person, and I tend to either take things out on myself or just keep it bottled up.

Whatever the case, I enjoy seeing the characters I write about in pain of some sort.

Another thing: Because of her heritage, Rainey sometimes has difficulty pronouncing some words. (read as: Sometimes I can't figure out how you would say something in both a German and French accent, so I mess around with it.)

Sorry if this seems a bit fast-paced. I'm just writing this for me, really. And sharing it with you. :3 So enjoy!

….

For a Sniper to cap the Intelligence, one had to have a plan. As a professional with standards, it was practically mandatory for Snipers to be able to make it back to their base safely while avoiding getting messy in the process.

Rainey was about to make an exception.

Her heart pounded in excitement as she was met by every member of the BLU team. Heavy tried to punch her, Engineer's sentry tried to shoot at her. She cried out in pain as one of the Demoman's sticky bombs caught her leg, scarring it and causing it to bleed. As she limped through the base, she barely managed to dodge the Pyro's flame before slashing several times at him, cutting off one hand and then killing the Pyro. As she ran by their resupply, she ambushed the BLU Medic from behind, slitting his throat and throwing him to the ground.

Adrenaline fueled her, kept her going through the base. She leapt over the dead body of the BLU Soldier, probably killed a bit earlier on as someone tried to get to the Intel before her. Secretly, part of her was thankful that she didn't have to deal with the BLU Soldier, who often lobbed insults at her while attempting to kill her whenever they met. The other part was worried; if he had died earlier, surely he had respawned by now…

"…It's too quiet now…" she muttered, stopping to catch her breath.

With a sigh, she closed her eyes, trying to slow her pounding heart for just a moment. The BLU base was much quieter than usual. She couldn't even hear the Engineer's sentry or the loud cacophony the BLU Heavy usually made. Sniper's hand tightened on her kukri as she listened. Normally the base would be crawling with BLUs once someone took their Intel. Something wasn't right. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and a shiver ran down her spine.

Someone was behind her.

"Show yourself, Spy." She said softly.

With a chuckle, the BLU Spy decloaked, his knife pressed against her neck. "You are good, non? 'ow did you know I was 'ere?"

"Trusting my instinct." She said, opening her eyes. The smell of cigarette smoke filled her nose, but she resisted the urge to cough, lest the knife cut into her throat and kill her. She shivered; the blade was unusually cold against her skin, not unlike the Spycicle her team's Spy favoured so much. Her hands shook as she gritted her teeth. "I have…problems vizh being va-va- vashed…" she stammered, cursing mentally at herself. Even her English was failing her at this point.

"What was zat? Can you not pronounce zat word?" Spy chuckled, "'ow cute."

"S-Shut up, Spy." She growled, "Zhat has nozhing to do vizh zhis."

"Oh, but it does, mon amour… more than you know…" Spy purred, his breath on her neck, "Your mozzer barely knew English…"

"Spy, Es ist genug!" she snapped, elbowing the Spy in the gut.

Spy stumbled backwards, giving Sniper a chance to slip away from him. The Intel forgotten, she crouched, swiftly sizing up the Spy.

It seemed as if he had gotten a new knife, one that her team's Spy also had. She shuddered; she was afraid of that knife, known as "Your Eternal Reward". She had watched her Spy backstab a Heavy with it once, instantly taking on the appearance of the Heavy. He then went as far as to lead the Medic all the way back to the BLU base before dispatching him.

It was not a normal knife. It was cursed, she had decided, a knife that fed on the blood of enemies and turned its wielder into a shapeshifting psychopath.

The two stared at each other, tension filling the air as they ran scenarios in their heads, each trying to figure out a way to kill the other. Sniper was fast, but she knew she wouldn't be able to kill him with speed and strength alone. No, she had to surprise him, to overwhelm him in some way before he had the chance to do the same.

The Spy took a step forward, and almost instinctively, she took a step back. Maybe she could outrun the Spy; in terms of speed, they were about the same, but if she startled him, she could get a head start.

She moved her kukri into her left hand, slowly reaching into her pouch and pulling out a jar. She smirked.

This would work.

Spy's eyes widened as a jar of yellow liquid was lobbed at him, breaking against his head and drenching him. His cigarette dropped out of his mouth in astonishment; he had no idea that she was even capable of using the filthy jar-based karate! With a howl, he stumbled backwards, clenching at his drenched suit.

"Jarate? NOOOOOOOO! MY SUIT!"

Sniper took that opportunity to run.

With her original route blocked by the piss-covered Spy, she backtracked a bit. She would have to go through the sewers to get back to her base, which meant getting wet and filthy. With a grimace she jumped down a hole in the grate, nearly landing on top of the BLU team's Sniper.

"Sorry, Herr Sniper!" she exclaimed, killing the Sniper in a few blows before heading into the sewers.

It was dark, and it reeked of….who knows what it reeked of. Sniper didn't want to think of it. Instead she took her first few steps into the murky water (if it could even be called that), wrinkling her nose as the stench and the squishing sound that came from the water.

"Zhis ist disgusting…" she muttered before venturing into the sewers.

As she waded through the liquid substance, she listened cautiously. She could hear her teammates making a ruckus above as they tried to keep the BLUs at bay for her. The ground shuddered as a particularly violent explosion went off, probably by their Demoman, who loved clustering his sticky bombs together and setting them off. Sniper trusted in the stability of Teufort, which endured rocket blasts and explosions all the time. In the back of her mind she wondered what exactly Teufort was even made out of as she came to the main part of the sewers.

She knew that this was the moment of truth. Either she made it under the bridge unscathed, or she died in the water. Hoisting the Intel further up her back, she took a few tentative steps into the deeper water.

"Vell…'ere goes…"

She dove into the frigid water, surfacing with a gasp. The water wasn't as rancid here as she thought it would be, and made for easy swimming. To keep the intelligence dry, Sniper began to doggy-paddle underneath the bridge, gritting her teeth as she swam.

"In th'water, lads!"

"Get her!"

She began to doggy-paddle faster, panting as bullets sprayed the water around her. She bit her lip as some bullets ricocheted off of the Intelligence or tore through her clothes. A few brushed against her skin, making her grunt in pain as she kept going. Above she could hear both Viktor and Ike barking out orders, trying to keep the BLUs as occupied as possible.

"Leetle Scoot! Get Intel!"

"Engineer! We need that sentry pointed down from the battlements! Get it up, now!"

With a groan she managed to pull herself up onto their side of the sewers. Very briefly, she inspected her wounds; her leg was still bleeding, and now she had several cuts on her back and thighs. As she tried to take a step forward she cried out in pain. A bullet was lodged in the back of her previously uninjured leg, making it painful to walk.

How she wished Medic were down here. She was no good at patching herself up, but leaving the bullet in wasn't an option. However, she didn't have much of a choice.

With a sigh she continued to drag herself through the sewers, wincing as she pulled her leg behind her. There was no way she was going to get the Intel up to their Intelligence room, at least not without some help. She fell to her knees, letting out a small cry of pain as she gripped her leg. She was good as dead down here.

"Need some 'elp…?"

Sniper gritted her teeth, glaring up into the green eyes of the BLU Spy. She could tell her Jarate had soaked into his suit; it was as good as ruined. His eyes were filled with a cold hatred, coupled with disgust. He gripped her by her vest and dragged her up, one hand closing around her throat.

"You little bitch…" he snarled, "'ow dare you… thinking you could get away from me? Foolish." He tightened his grip around her neck and she started flailing, squeaking and gasping for air.

"I wanted to 'elp you… and zis iz 'ow you show your respect? I could 'ave done away wiz all of your problems…"

"I-I don't know vhat you are t….talking…gggkkk…" She clawed at the gloved hand, her eyes squeezing shut. She was beginning to feel lightheaded as the Spy's grip tightened even more.

She was used to being blown apart by rockets and bombs, sniped by her BLU counterpart, riddled full of holes by guns, and set on fire, but she never felt pain like this. Her eyes began to roll into the back of her head as she weakly gasped for air.

"Well? Will you accept my 'elp? For your mozzer?"

Sniper opened her eyes, glaring back at him with a fading spark in her eye. "Nein."

Spy shrugged. "Defiant to ze death, I see. Very well."

Sniper closed her eyes. Respawn would pick her up and bring her back. It would remove the marks that Spy was going to leave on her neck, and heal her bloody broken body. But respawn wasn't perfect. It wouldn't remove the mental damage that was being inflicted on her. It couldn't fix that, no matter how smart Engineer was, or anyone for that matter.

She simply wanted the pain to stop so she could get back to work.

"Hey, there's a Spy over here!"

Sniper's eyes snapped open as a RED blur rushed forward. A bat swung forward, clubbing the Spy in the back of his head. Stunned, he dropped Sniper, who fell to her knees, coughing violently and gasping for air.

"Begone, petit lapin inutile. Zis does not involve you." Spy growled, pulling out his revolver as he rubbed his head.

"Yeah, whatever." Scout said, rolling his eyes. He leapt up into the air, bringing the bat down upon Spy's head with a loud "bonk" before the BLU had a chance to fire. With the additional power provided by the Jarate, the Spy crumbled to the ground, dead.

"Sniper! Rainey, y'okay? Y'need Medic?" Scout said, kicking the BLU Spy's body aside and kneeling down next to Sniper. She coughed, weakly grabbing at the Intel on her back.

"Take…..Take it…"

Scout helped pull the Intel from Sniper's back, allowing it to simply float in the water. "You need Medic, Sniper!"

"Scoot, take…take zhe Intel… you don't have much time left…" she panted. "Just go…leave me…"

"But what if that stupid Spy comes back? What then?"

Sniper grinned at him, crawling up a bit out of the water and leaning against the wall, "Zhat won't 'appen… you're fast. Beat 'im." She said, closing her eyes.

The pain was slowly fading away. So were the sounds of her teammates fighting above, and the sound of the water flowing through the sewers. Even Scout's voice was becoming dull and quiet. Part of her thought it to be unusual, but the other part knew what was happening. With a whimper, she bit her lip, resisting the urge to call for help. She didn't need anyone's help, as far as she was concerned. She could take care of herself.

They would never come for her anyways, she thought, as she slipped into unconsciousness.