This is the second fanfic I've written that had a prison break out scene, and honestly I can fully confirm that the hardest thing for me to write are prison breakout scenes. You really will have to subject yourself to some heavy suspension of disbelief for this chapter-try thinking not too hard on some of the logic and scenes cause I tried my best but...eh
Disclaimer: I own nothing, there's a lot less language in this chapter but there's the slightest of self harm/trigger warning...?
This chapter honestly had a lot of action going on-very difficult to write. So I really didn't go over and polish this chapter like the others, cause I didn't want to add too much and make this chapter unbearably long... Anyway, I hope you enjoy the course this story is taking!
You had better run from me
With everything you own
'Cause I am gonna come for you
With all that I have
The alarms are blaring; red alert sirens flash throughout the empty cafeteria.
"What? Don't tell me ya didn't miss me?" Harley pouts. "Cause here I was, missin' you guys so much that I even told Puddin' I wanted to take the week off and come visit you guys!"
There's something wavering about the way Harley mentions the Joker- so affectionately still- that Deadshot gives her a questioning look. She doesn't make eye contact with him, and instead flips her pretty little pigtails and poses, showing off her heeled boots (stilettos, because of course they are) and her classic red and blue look, this time around imagined in equally short shorts and an even more so revealing top, though the fabric is thicker. Strapped to her waste is a small purse in the shape of a panda head, and her ears flicker with a set of gold chandelier earrings. Her neck bares a simple black choker with a Joker card tucked into it.
All and all it's a gaudy look.
Deadshot pinches the bridge of his nose.
First Flag pulls off this secret meet up to plan how to break Deadshot and the others out, and now Harley shows up, blasting the place up. What could possibly be next?
"You plan this..?" Rick suddenly asks Deadshot.
Deadshot shakes his head. "I don't think she even did."
Deadshot squints, looking behind Harley.
"Harley, did you come alone?!"
That's what's next. No reinforcements.
Harley pouts. "Can't you just be happy that I came at all?" She turns her attention towards Flag.
"Hey Flag," she winks. "Fancy findin' you here. You friendly or Foe-lish?"
Rick is dumbfounded that Harley Quinn is standing before his very eyes and hesitates before realization of their situation dawns on him.
"Dammit, Lady! You're gonna bring every guard raining down after us!" He turns to Lawton, "I got Griggs on my side to not alert Waller of anything, but I'm not sure if he'll buy that this is the 'something' I was talking about."
Deadshot sighs, looking crossly towards Harley.
"Didn't think this through, either of you, did ya?"
Harley cocks her head, her pigtails bobbing. "Flag ain't gonna try to stop us?"
"Harley, Flag's actually with us…or, we're with him..?"
Flag looks at Deadshot, still in disbelief that Deadshot agreed to his plan, and now that Harley has shown up, too.
"Oh." Harley shrugs nonchalantly. "Well then, we three better go round up the rest of the gang! And did anyone else notice no cameras are on in this place?"
Deadshot nodded towards Flag, "Again. Our side."
"C'mon," Flag calls out, reaching for his pass and heading towards the doors leading back to the cells. He swipes his card and the door unlocks, looking back briefly to comment,
"We're here for the team, aren't we?"
Deadshot raises his wrists, still cuffed. "Hello?"
"I gotcha, doll face," Harley runs over, pulling her signature handgun at Lawton's chains. Before he can yell at her not to, she puts two rounds in the chains.
Frowning, Deadshot removes the cuffs of metal, "You could've shot my damn foot off. Or worse. You're still crazy as ever."
Harley winked, "Ya love it!"
"Some of this vegetation…it's been extinct for centuries!" June marvels at the landscape. She has to remind herself this is a memory- a projection- and she's not actually travelled 6000 years into the past.
"So, are we, like, following his voice or something..?" Diablo asks, not nearly as impressed by grass as June is.
June frowns, "No. I can hear his voice in my head, but it's not coming from any direction. Besides, I know where he'll be, and I know the way."
"How..?" GQ asked tentatively.
"I've been here before."
It's a long trek, and for a moment June wonders if the change of geography will misguide her. But, strangely enough, she feels the way. She has relived the day that changed her life for ages, and memorized the path and the forest and the temple and the cave-
When they finally reach a vantage point, Diablo and GQ gasp at the sight of the Temple. Except it's not covered with growth and forest and ages of wear and eroded as she remembers it. It's beautiful and golden and rises amongst the trees like a sun. There are flames and torches that reflect on the gold, causing the entire temple to flicker and waver like a mirage. It's nearly blinding to look at.
"And he's in there..?" GQ continues to ask, still questioning this whole mission. June nods.
Diablo steps forward first, "Let's go then-"
June suddenly collapses, crying out in pain.
She's screaming, gripping at her heart and chest, and GQ and Diablo are by her side immediately.
"What's wrong?!"
"Shit, what if she fades—now, of all times?"
June feels tears well in her eyes, but they're peculiar—they're tears of pain but also of relief, of joy. She feels Enchantress reaching out to her, through her, across the dimensions and her vision fades.
Her eyes no longer look at the faces of her two companions, but at a stone floor with thick, gloppy painted runes and enscriptions instead. June realizes she's seeing through Enchantress's eyes (her own eyes). Enchantress is panting, breathing heavily and June feels the exertion. She's trying to pump air through lungs without a heart to control them, sustained like a machine by the weak magic the cultists course through the runes. And then Enchantress (June) lowers her head towards her arms, and turns them to reveal her ash-covered wrists.
Enchantress brings a finger up to the top and draws it down, breaking skin with her nail. Her hand shakes, but Enchantress is determined. A trickle of blood pools to the surface of her arm. The chanters don't notice; June's body is so curled in on itself on the ground, writhing and cringing. Enchantress takes her finger and smudges the blood on her arm, first in a circular motion and then several supporting streaks. It's a symbol; not one that June recognizes, though her knowledge of runes and magic was always rather limited considering she was possessed by a witch, not actually one.
"Brother…June…They're killing us…They're killing us…Rick…"
June gasps, jumping upright as she plunges back from her vision and into the reality that she currently knows. Diablo and GQ jump back, concerned.
June frantically looks at her arm—there's no mark. She quickly turns to the ground, drawing in the sandy dirt the symbol to the best of her memory. When she's done, she stares at it.
Diablo and GQ exchange a look before finally breaking the silence, "What's that..?"
"She said 'Rick'…" June mutters, memorizing the symbol.
"Who said?" Diablo asks.
June looks up to the two men, standing beside her. "Enchantress did. She showed me—she showed me what we have to do, I think…"
She looks back at the rune.
"We need this symbol, and Incubus. And…I'm not sure what to do with either yet, but I know we'll figure it out once we find Incubus. Then, we have to get back, and I have to save Rick."
"Save him? Do you think he's in trouble?"
June bites her lip.
"I'm not sure…but why would Enchantress say his name?"
"You think she has him?"
"No. Enchantress is trapped in the seal. I think…I felt her try to use her magic, outside of it, once—it was really, really painful," June flinches, recalling the suspended feeling from before and the few times she'd suddenly feel a sharper, more intense fire course through her. "But she's stopped. If she said Rick's name…maybe he's in trouble, but not because Enchantress."
"Well, we have our own 'trouble' ahead of us. We'll worry about Rick when and if we get out of here."
"Besides," GQ adds, "Colonel Rick Flag was practically a legend of a soldier—any situation, he'll be fine."
"Flag, some weapons would be nice," Deadshot called over the sound of gunfire. The trio were currently barricaded behind around two corners, with fire power shooting down the hall towards them.
Harley frowns, sitting next to Deadshot.
"I don't know if I can take 'em all out at this distance," she pouted, sadly turning her pistol over in her hand. Deadshot eyed it for one second, snatched it, and leapt out from cover.
"Hey! That's mine!"
"Lawton, no!"
Deadshot took aim and shot as quick as a blink. Six rounds, all direct headshots.
The first guard hadn't even hit the ground by the time the last one was dead.
"Never mind, Flag- I fixed the situation."
Harley jumped up, irritated.
"That was mine! Give it back!"
"Which one of us is the better shot? Or, more accurately, is known as the best shot in the world?"
Harley scrunched her face up, contemplating a moment before smiling, "Alright, you can borrow it!"
Rick was up and heading down the corridor already, eyeing the guards' bodies. He knew these men were on his side—they were soldiers, and they were just doing their job did involve shooting at him. Rick picked two of the glocks, tossing one at Deadshot. Harley expectantly reached her hand out for her own gun back, but Deadshot smirked and walked on with it. This incited a string of curses from her.
Rick ran along the wall, surveying the numbered cells.
"It should be…this one! Deadshot-" Lawton caught up, aimed the pistol and shot at the lock. Both he and Flag then kicked at the door.
Inside, a huddled Captain Boomerang jumped.
"Oi, don't shoot me, mates! We had a good thing goin', I thought!" He paused for a moment, "This ain't some lead into mah surprise birthday party, is it?"
Deadshot side eyed Flag, "We don't really need him, do we?"
"Hey, craziness!" Boomerang smiled, seeing past the boys towards Harley.
"You got caught agin?"
"Not yet, and I ain't plannin' on it!" She scolded. "So stop chit-chattin' and let's go already! We got one more stop to make!"
"Two, actually," Flag countered. The three of them glanced at him.
"You said you wanted weapons, right?"
The Basement level was empty save for boiler rooms, support beams, and one lone cell. It was an empty level, as no guards ventured here. The alarms were continuing, but the group had apparently found luck, running into no guards save the three from before.
The luck ended when they found themselves outside of Croc's cell.
"Gang's all here," Croc growled, but he smiled nonetheless at Harley.
"Bullets ain't gonna work on this lock." Harley noted. "Speaking of..?"
Deadshot handed Harley's gun back to her like a kid getting their toy back after time out. For a brief moment she was pleased to be reunited, until she noticed the empty chamber.
"Aw, I left the others in the guards at the front!" Harley whined. Flag cringed.
They were all getting caught, and he was definitely going to jail.
"Can't the Croc just bust himself outta 'ere? These bars aren't no diff'rent that sum bones fer 'im, I imagine."
Croc snarled at Harkness.
Flag was glancing around, quickly looking for some solution.
It came in the form of four guards rounding the corner.
Harley's initial reaction was noticing the guns as a means to replacing her empty one.
"Perfect!"
Everyone else took note of the guns being directed at them.
"Run!"
The guards shot; Deadshot grabbing Harley and dodging out of the way. Harkness flung himself against the cell door of Croc's cell, trying to be guarded by the slight indention of the archway around the entrance way.
Flag squatted under the automatic fire, zig zagging a few steps before dodging behind a support beam with Harley and Deadshot.
"What happened to 'put your hands up', huh? Why they on shoot to kill on sight mode?" Harley snapped, flinching as bullets flew too close for comfort by her shoulder.
Flag and Deadshot exchanged a look.
"If Waller knew what was happening, she'd press the button. And Belle Reve has some dirt bags, but none with this good of firepower."
Flag nudged his head, "Then I guess they're not Waller, and they're not Belle Reve."
"So the list of people who hate us enough to kill us just goes up, huh?" Deadshot muttered.
Harkness, meanwhile, was facing the cell, pressing himself against the bar, when he took notice of something.
"Oi, KC? Mind, ah, lending me that there," he nodded towards the TV Killer Croc eyed him for a moment, then nodded understandably. Croc stepped up to his companion of these few months, hefted it from the wall, and smashed it to the ground. Shards of glass and screws scattered around the cell, into the water. Croc lifted a particular piece of plastic, eyeing it before handing it through the bars to Boomerang.
"This do?"
Digger shrugged.
"I can work with it."
Harley, biting her lip behind the pillar still, peered around the column briefly. The guards were approaching, still opening fire. Before ducking back, she took note of their S.W.A.T uniforms.
"Belle Reve couldn't have gotten SWAT here that quickly. Staff is briefed that the response time is eighteen minutes for support like this. These guys ain't SWAT. They're phonies."
Harley lifted her bat, jumping from behind her cover in time to knock one of the men hard in the chest.
"I hate phonies!"
Deadshot and Flag both rushed two other guards, grabbing at their guns. Deadshot pulled his glock on the guard, aiming at the throat below the face shielding of the helmet. Flag struggled with his guard, but managed to twist them to use the man as a shield against the fourth guard who was unoccupied in battle.
Deadshot quickly shot him down.
Harley had tripped her guard up, and as he fell to his hands she kicked her boot upwards, knocking him in the face.
She shrugged her shoulders at the four bodies, picking up the remaining two guns. She tossed one at Boomerang, who was just peeking out from his sheltered archway.
"Pussy."
"Yeah, well…someone had to free the beast."
To the amazement of everyone except himself, Harkness had managed to pick the lock of the cell with the television piece.
Croc stepped from the cell, while Harley nodded approvingly.
"Guess you really did go through some school, huh?" Deadshot teased.
"I'm doubtful that was all of them. Harley, you got some kind of getaway?" Flag broke ino the conversation.
Harley pondered a moment, "I kinda crashed it through the gates to get in…If we can fish it outta the bayou, I think it'll run."
"You really are crazy. No plan. At all?!" Deadshot exclaimed, amazed.
"Doesn't matter. I have a ride. She's out back, or at least she should be. Who knows if whoever these guys are caught up to her."
Griggs hated this job. Explosions, alarms, gunfire—he could faintly hear it all and it just made him sink further in his chair. He'd switched the cameras off, and wasn't requesting back up or reporting any of the action. He'd left tips around to most of the staff to ignore whatever happens. He didn't even know what was going to happen, and still didn't.
But, as much as he hated his job of warding these criminals, it was infinitely better than being in a cell as one.
An online blackjack game was currently loaded on the screen. He was losing—always—and was debating breaking into the savings account of his sons' when the phone rang.
"Belle Reve, Officer Griggs. What can I do ya?"
"This is Amanda Waller."
Griggs cursed under his breath, frantically sitting up as if Waller could see him. This woman was a nightmare that he'd had to interact with more than he'd have liked lately due to her Taskforce X.
"I'm calling to question a particular visit reported. Floyd Lawton, two days ago, by Colonel Rick Flag."
Damn, Griggs thought. Flag must've done something to piss Waller off if she was tracking his moves like this. No wonder he wanted Griggs to cover for him for the day.
Well, he said to just do his job…
Griggs scratched at his head, recalling the visit.
"Ah, yeah…something about a break-up letter. The Colonel got dumped? Probably needed to remind himself that his life could be worse—paid a visit to Lawton. It'd cheer me up."
Waller was quiet on the other end of the line.
"Where's Lawton now?"
"In his cell, just like the rest of them." Hypothetically, Griggs shrugged.
"Report to me if that changes." Waller snapped, and the line went dead.
Griggs shook his head, hanging the land line up.
"I hate this job so freakin' much."
Katanna stood outside the car, sword in hand, with two bodies at her feet; also dressed as S.W.A.T.
"あなたがそう長くかかったもの?"
Flag shrugged. "You know…catching up, old friends. 'See you made some yourself."
Katanna glanced at the team, noticing Harley among them.
"You're back," she spoke, nodding.
Harley's smile widened, "Same to be said about you sista!"
"Car, now, ladies; catch-up, later—bad men inside trying to kill us, remember?"
It was a crammed ride in the back of a van with no seats. Croc sat in the corner, with Boomerang across from him. Deadshot sat with his back to the driver's seat, Flag behind the passenger's. Harley had called shotgun while Katanna drove.
For about a minute, the drive was quiet.
Suddenly, Harley perked up.
"Oh! I almost forgot! I~ brought a gift for all of you!"
Harley unbuckled her heeled boot, pulling a small phone device from within it. She checked it briefly, noticing no cracks, and turned it on.
The screen lit up as an exact replica of Flag's detonator app.
"How'd you..?"
Harley cackled, proudly, and with a few swift presses, the red outlines of the team, updated to no longer include the fallen or Harley herself, switched the green.
Everyone touched at their necks, Boomerang practically scratching at his.
Flag snatched the device from Harley, comparing it to his own, strapped at his arm.
"You disarmed the bombs? How?"
Harley shrugged, "Since the doctor who designed the bombs died in the crash in Midway, when I thought my Puddin' died too…" Again, her voice hitches slightly to Deadshot's ears only, "Well, I still had an explosive in my neck. So, first thing I did when I got out was raided his notes—weren't too hard to read, being a doctor myself," She smirked proudly, "Anyway. So, I tracked down some people who could replicate the coding and the signal, had them whip up this device for me, and now I got the same power that the Wall has!"
Flag shook his head.
"She has the ability to reactivate the bombs. A failsafe. We need to get rid of those bombs. Permanently."
Harley smirked, "That, I can also help with!" But her smile faded a bit, and she looked towards the window, contemplating something.
Flag still was staring at the device, nearly identical to his. He rolled up his sleeve, comparing the devices. Harley's could deactivate the bombs—Flag could arm them and set them off, but to disarm them was doable only by a link to the system from the tech department that created the bombs.
With one phone call, Waller could have the bombs be reactivated.
They had to get to Waller and stop her before she could have a chance to make the call.
Flag rotated the device over in his hand, eyeing something on the back that appeared abnormal. This device was nearly identical to his own, save for what looked like a chip-
A tracker.
Flag slammed to device on the ground of the van, taking the rifle he'd grabbed from the fallen S.W.A.T impersonator, and smashed at the screen.
"Hey! What're you doin?!"
"That device was bugged. Those guards back at Belle Reve that showed up the same time as you? They were tracking you. You were their target."
Harley's face sunk at the realization.
Deadshot watched the scene while everyone else starred on in disbelief at their destroyed freedom.
Flag threw his arm up, showing his own detonator.
"Waller can reactivate the bombs—this detonator won't do anything, but it'll show me when the bomb has been activated. Right now, no one's head is exploding, so we can assume Waller isn't aware of your break out—yet. She'll find out, though, so we're against time." Flag lowered his arm, sighing.
It was Deadshot who finally spoke up, "Tell them, Flag."
Harkness rolled his eyes, "This ain't another bloody mission yer lyin' to us bout agin, isit?"
Flag shook his head, "No. This isn't a mission. Ya'll are free. I was at Belle Reve today to ask each of you if you'd help me—I won't force you, I won't hold these bombs as a threat against you. I'll only ask you, and if you say no, you can walk."
Harley, still distracted slightly by the tracker, asked in a softer voice than usual, "What's the help ya want us for? Ain't you got military buddies? Waller could probably pull a few strings and make all your problems disappear."
"Waller is the problem." Deadshot answered.
Boomerang smiled, leaning forward. "Now I'm interested. We're taking the ol' bag out?"
Flag didn't deny, but for the most part just ignored Boomerang. He continued, "She's taken June."
Boomerang's smile fell this time, and everyone held a respective silence momentarily. They remembered their broken Colonel when he'd crushed the witch's heart and accepted a life without his love in it. After all that fighting, just to free her, he'd been defeated even when he'd won. He'd died, for a moment, with the witch when he thought June had, too.
They knew what the girl meant to him.
"Why'd Waller do it?" Harley asked. "She ain't the witch again, is she?"
Flag grit his teeth. "Honestly…I don't know."
He told them everything. Because by now they were a team and he didn't lead them blind anymore. He told them what had happened, when he'd last seen June, and then about the letter. And then he spoke of Enchantress, and her appearance and the flicker of her magic. He swore she was trying to tell him something, or get his attention. He tells them how Enchantress was in his dream, and how she screamed that "she's killing us".
When his story was over, the van remained quiet.
"So, you know everything. It's all speculation—dreams and visions. The worst kind of basis of a job that could get ya killed. I don't know where they are. I don't know for sure that Waller has her. And I don't have a way of stopping those bombs in your neck once Waller realizes you're missing. So, you can leave, and find some way to get rid of them—follow Quinn here to wherever she says can do the job—but… I'm asking if you'd help me… save June." He finishes, trailing off.
"I already said yes," Deadshot interjects.
Rick looks at him, his eyes slightly welling, as if to ask a final "Are you sure?"
Harley shrugged. "If Deadshot goes, then it's a party, an' I don't wanna miss the fun!" She feigned a smile.
Croc nodded, "I'm in."
Katanna smirked in the back view mirror. Boomerang noticed, and sighed. "Alright, ya crazies. Band's back te'gether an' we're all gonna die any second anyway once the Wall realizes, so why not die surrounded by…" He stops at the word 'friends', because they're not.
They're the Suicide Squad.
June inhales sharply and exhales slowly. They're at the entrance. GQ stands beside her, with no weapon or defense at all. Diablo stands at her other side; he is the defense.
"Sister."
"He's just inside," June murmurs, Incubus' booming voice resonating in her head.
"The plan again?" GQ asks, not letting his nerves show quite as much as June.
June shook her head.
"Draw the symbol on everything with anything."
GQ nodded, hesitantly, while Diablo stepped forward.
"Let's get you home."
"-Us home," June reminds them.
Inside, the temple is just as rich and brilliant and eccentric as outside. It's polished and jeweled and the architecture is everything June ever dreamed of realizing. There's pottery and columns and crafted sculptures that June only has ever seen relics of. But, her attention gets pulled away rather quickly when she spots their target, standing at the center of the grand entrance.
It's Incubus.
Except, it's a man. A simple, bald man in a suit who looks haggard and sweaty and so out of place.
"Please…" The man begs, and June remembers. This is the vessel of Incubus. He was trapped in this dimension, too.
GQ steps forward, but June shouts at him, "Don't!"
"Please…" The man grovels again, stepping forward. Diablo takes a defensive stand.
June looks around quickly. There's no ink or chalk or powder. She bites her lip, thinking—dust? Fabric? Leaves? What could be used-
"Let me return to my sister..."
June jumps, because the man is caving in on himself, his skin and body mangling and morphing into the familiar monster that is Incubus. Diablo lights his fists once again and GQ throws an arm in front of June.
"Bring me to my sister..."
June's shaking her head.
"You can't do it yourself?"
Incubus steps towards them, and June is desperate, trying to come up with a plan. Maybe just walking in and confronting Incubus wasn't even a decent concept of a plan."
"The ritual…"
Diablo sprints forward, letting his flames grow and consume him. Incubus throws a defending punch, which Diablo catches, but Diablo's return kick has no effect on Incubus. They're at a standstill while GQ and June watch on helplessly.
"The ritual..?" June mutters to herself, thinking.
She envisions Enchantress, crumpled on the floor, trapped within those seals within June's body.
"-The ritual! It's a portal!"
"What?!" GQ yells, panicking.
"The ritual brought Enchantress back—the symbol is a rune for the ritual! It's some sort of…portal, or something! I think…" June looks around, grasping for anything. She heads towards a decorative pot, picking it up and slamming it against the golden walls. It shatters and she grabs the nearest piece with an edge.
Diablo and Incubus remain locked in arms, trying to push the other to the ground. Diablo struggles, but GQ's concern is directed towards June when she slits her forearm.
"June?!"
She starts with a circle, then adds a few cuts through and around it. She nearly completes the symbol, with one final mark missing, but stops and instead grabs GQ's arm.
"Do you believe in me?" She asks.
She's frightened because she thinks this is the way back, but she isn't sure it'll work. She's not sure if they'll all make it back, or only one, or none.
She's scared but she doesn't hesitate to carve her arm up or charge into the temple of a demi-god or partake in some witch ritual that is beyond his comprehension with portals and pagans and dimensions and death. She acts like a soldier.
GQ sees why Flag fell in love with her.
"I do."
"Then we need to get to Diablo. Hold onto me, and don't let go!"
GQ nods and grips her hand. They sprint at Diablo, who from the corner of his eye catches sight of them.
"Stay back!" Diablo screams. He's losing to Incubus again.
They're mere yards away. "Diablo, let go of Incubus!"
Diablo hesitates, but kicks Incubus' leg out from under him. They both trip, but Diablo catches himself enough to turn. He immediately outstretches his hand.
GQ lets go of June's arm, gripping her shoulder and diving with her. With her hands free, she brings the bloodied clay edge to the arm that reaches for Diablo. Just as the object pierces her arm in the final marking of the rune, she clasps her hand around Diablo's, feeling the searing burn of grabbing a flame.
And then they're gone.
Flag leads the crouching line-up. Behind him trails Deadshot, then Katanna and Boomerang, with Croc and Harley making up the caboose.
"You sure about this?" Flag asks, uneasily, Deadshot.
"My sources never let me down before. Satellites track her phone to this facility—it matches up as an ARGUS facility. Two and two, you know?"
Flag nods.
Lawton has his ways of finding targets, and no matter how off-book Waller thinks she is, her phone and it's calls between Rick were traced and recorded somewhere out in the world. And if it exists, it can be dug up and exploited.
The drive was long, and between shifts with Katanna for driving and sleeping, it'd taken a little over a day to cross to this part of the country. East Coast, a facility under ARGUS shareholder names and reportedly abandoned for ten months now, due for demolition. This had to be the place.
Katanna had surprised them all with gifts of her own—while Flag had been consulting Lawton, she'd ran through the storage room again and swiped a few tools she expected the squad would need. Deadshot was disappointed that Katanna couldn't carry his suit, but his scope and mask and arm guns were still something to be grateful to have. Boomerang was ecstatic to find Katanna had snagged his entire collection and its case, which he'd proceeded to holster through the jacket Flag had provided.
Flag had stolen them from the barracks' locker rooms. The clothes were ill fitting on everyone, particularly Croc who already had ripped the tank Flag had supplied him, but it was better than prison orange clothes. Even came with Kevlar.
So from behind a wired fence, the squad looked on a seemingly dark and empty facility. Two guards posted at each entrance, gate and door and four more on the roof.
Flag turned back to relay the plan.
"KC and Boomerang, you take care of the gate guards. Harley, you're with me and Katanna—we're taking the fence along the west side, cleaning up as many on the ground as we can. Deadshot, the roof is all yours."
"What, no inspiring words?"
Flag thought for a moment.
"Shoot the bad guys and let's save June."
Deadshot nodded, wondering why he expected anything better out of Flag when it came to motivation or speeches.
"What're we waitin' for? An invitation?" Harley snapped. Flag threw up a signal and the group dispersed.
Katanna lead the trio on the ground, taking out two guards. A third guard took Harley's bat to the face and fell, only to be knocked completely out by the butt of Rick's gun. He wouldn't risk shooting without a silencer on such a sensitive stealth.
Lawton ran up to them, having claimed two guards on the roof, and finally Boomerang joined the group, looking out of breadth and disgusted.
"KC's a bloody monster," he spat, though he offered no more elaboration.
The entrance room was clear. The squad walked through, quietly, looking behind walls and in through windowed doors.
"Everything's dark. No one's here." Harley whined.
Flag held up a hand, signaling her to be quiet.
Faintly, he could hear it.
"It's a gospel!" Harley cheered, and again Flag shot her a look to keep her voice down.
The Squad crept down the hall towards the growing noise. It quickly became clear it wasn't gospel, or singing—it was a chant.
Flag felt a stone in his gut, and quickened his pace as the others followed behind.
At a point, the chanting died suddenly, and all was silent.
They came to the door, which Flag toggled at. It was locked.
Flag stepped back, aiming the rifle, but hesitated. Lawton stepped up beside him, whispering low enough for only the two of them, "You thinkin' of 'what if she's not in there'?"
Flag keeps his eye trained on the lock.
"No. I'm worried she will be."
He pulls the trigger.
Rick sets his soaked cap on the table, sighing. It's a miserable day and a miserable mission. Waller's mad, thinking of putting together a team based off of these…criminals.
June sits crossed-legged in the chair across from him. She smiles at him, and he feels some stress melt away. He proceeds to walk towards her and kneels down, pressing his head against the nook of her neck. She wraps her arms around his shoulders.
"You shouldn't have to do this."
"Do what?" She asks.
Rick looks up into her eyes.
"Be here. You shouldn't apart of this…team." He spits, because it's not a team. It's a sock full of firecrackers you throw through your neighbors window as a prank when you're thirteen years old and don't know any better.
She shrugs.
"Waller thinks something good can come of…her…"
Rick shakes his head, lifting himself and rest June's head in his hands. "Don't do that. Don't think your only value, your only worth, is her. You're amazing, June. And you deserved better than this."
June takes his hands in hers, blushing, before rising from her chair to meet his lips. His hands move down to her back and he kisses her with the same passion that he feels behind his words—he meant it. June shouldn't be possessed and she shouldn't be a part of this Taskforce and he would do anything—if there was a way to spare June from becoming a soldier, hardened and succumbing to Enchantress mission after mission…He could see it now, and he swore to God if June was lost to that monster he'd personally kill Waller.
June separates from him momentarily, smiling brightly, "I'll be fine. You'll be there with me, too, anyway."
For June, he'd do anything.
Even lead homicidal maniacs and psychos into the frontlines of battle.
When June breathes, there's an intense pain in her chest that makes her keel over. And as she does such, she realizes it's not her—its Enchantress. Enchantress has control of her body, but June has returned—she's there, as she always was, and can see and feel everything but can't control it. And her eyes adjust and she sees what Enchantress sees.
She sees GQ out cold beside her, and she sees Diablo on her other side, cooled down to his natural, human state, and trying to gather himself.
And when she looks up, she sees Incubus.
June's heart plummets.
He'd managed to grab hold of Diablo. He'd made it back to this world—both siblings had been reunited.
"Brother!" Enchantress gasps. "Brother, I am weak! I have no heart, and these humans bind me!"
"I will set you free, sister. We shall be rid of this pain soon enough."
Incubus looked down towards Diablo, his hand rising.
"No!" June shouted, and amazingly enough, Enchantress did the same.
Incubus turns to her, confused.
Enchantress, irritated, tries to fight June's control, but without a heart at all, in or out of her body, she's too weak.
"The girl…she wants them alive…"
"W-we need them alive!" June yells at Enchantress, trying to reason with her.
"Why?" Enchantress hisses in June's mind.
"I am human. And I am your host. You can't take care of my body, but they can—they will keep me alive, which will keep you alive."
Enchantress hisses, looking between the two of them.
"We only need one."
"No!"
June wrestles Enchantress for control of her hands, and Enchantress, growing impatiently irritated, lacks the strength to keep the battle up long.
"Sister, what ails you? Is it your heart?"
"It's the girl. We must keep the humans alive. They'll sustain this body for me until we can create a new heart for me." Enchantress looked about at the baffled chanters.
"The others, however…"
June felt weak, and no matter how much she struggled with Enchantress for control, she could do nothing to stop Incubus. He lashed out at the cultists, and in agonizing screams they seemed to crystallize before her eyes. A sight she was too familiar with, and one that haunted her.
And just as the chaos of screams erupted, so did gunfire. And the door swung open, and through Enchantress' vision, June saw him.
Rick.
"June!"
She's pale and her arm is bleeding and charred at the hand. It's Enchantress in form, dress, and eyes, but it's also June. It's June's skin and face and somewhere in her own body, it is June. And maybe she's not so buried by Enchantress because at the sound of her name, of June's name, she looks to him. And for a flicker- for a moment- her eyes aren't glowing embers of orange.
They're the bright eyes of June Moone.
And Rick notices nothing else, even as Deadshot throws Rick to the ground to dodge an attack from Incubus—Rick hardly even notices the monster's return. And he doesn't even get a good look at the two bodies nearest Enchantress—June—but they're there and so is gunfire and boomerangs and suddenly everyone is engaging in a ranged fight against Incubus.
"Enough! Sister, we can take our leave of here! I will lend you my strength, and the girl may keep the humans."
Enchantress' eyes (Flag swears they're Junes) stay on Rick, but her hands raise and wave.
Then the four are gone.
"No!"
June's gone.
Hide, hide, I have burned your bridges
I will be a gun, and it's you I'll come for
A/N: I got the Art-of book and movie novelization (Cause I'm that obsessed, like send help)-there's a scene alluded to in both where June and Rick make out in an office at Belle Reve (She's seen standing under an umbrella when her, Rick and Waller first arrive and then she just disappears) and it's just really cute in both iterations so that's the lone flashback of this chapter...
With June and the dimension, I like the detail of Enchantress' runes on her body and how they actually move, and so I wanted to utilize the whole rune-on-body as what transfers everyone back from that alternate dimension (told ya we wouldn't stay there for long)-The thing is, though, that June didn't need Incubus at all for the ritual...Yeah, but since I'm he author I can make up the added fact that Enchantress, despite wounded and dying, was stubborn enough to not show June the trick of how to get home until she was close enough to bring Incubus back with her-he's kinda the extra magic that Enchantress needs. As with the Cultists, they definitely took a bite out of something too big for them to choose-they opened the portal to pull Enchantress back, but they didn't close it and that's what lead to June jumping between the dimensions and her pulling the other three with her.
Yay Diablo and GQ are back to life cause I said so. :p They also have a part to play in Enchantress and Incubus' plan and the story as a whole, so...
Harley, and really all the others, have side plots that I really need to start delving and introducing-there's been minuscule hints so far, and I wouldn't developed everyone more but this chapter just had...too much. And I almost broke this chapter up, except I loved the ending too much-Rick finally saw June, except she's Enchantress again, and then she's gone immediately. Again.
Gosh it's so late/early, I'm sure there's more about this chapter that I needed to clarify but just send me a PM or review or whatever if you have a thought or critique or anything! You guys are seriously the best-every alert I get that someone is following or favoring or reviewing this story kinda makes my day a thousand times better and I just really hope that with each chapter I don't let you guys down with whatever expectations you're getting of this story! Thank you!