The atmosphere in the base seemed to lighten as scout stepped out of the infirmary. His hand still twinged in pain a little from its recent operation, but besides that he felt fine. Great even.
A first since the entire black mesa thing had started.
Tomorrow was a Sunday and that meant an entire day off to do whatever he felt like doing. Sure, it also meant everything in the town of Teufort would be closed and Spy would try and drag him off to church, but to hell with that frenchman and his plans. He was going to spend the Sunday like every other – doing nothing .
But, putting his hands in his pocket and making his way to the stairs that lead out of the basement, he turned his mind to the present. He still had the rest of today to get through. He knew dinner wouldn't be for another hour and after what had happened in the common room, he was pretty sure his presence wouldn't be taken well there. Walking up the stairs, he came out to the main corridor of the base.
The corridor was empty, and as he walked by the door to the common room, scout could see why. The rest of the team was still in there, with the addition of the Pyro and the Engineer. Passing by the door without incident, he moved on past the kitchen, the bathroom and the stairwell to upstairs and their bedrooms before reaching the door on the far end that lead to the outside of the base and the map proper.
Pushing it open without a second thought, the Scout found himself in the landing that their spawn room overlooked. All the blood from the morning's battle was gone, leaving the faded cement walls and floors the same dusty blue they had been on day one. The sun was low on the horizon, casting the BLU base in shadow as the decrepit red wood of the enemy base stood directly in its path.
From over here, the RED base looked abandoned, its forlorn façade hiding the activity of its occupants.
Fishing a purple can of soda out from his bag, the Scout made his way to the front of the landing, where their sniper usually hid while in battle. Sitting down on the buildings edge so that his legs dangled over the drop, he opened his can and sat there, contemplating the moment. The scorching midsummer heat that plagued New Mexico during the day was easing up, making way for the cooler temperatures of night. The sky, once a brilliant shade of cloudless azure, was now undertoned with the pinks and yellows of the incoming dusk that had already begun to tint the aether. A few stray wisps of cloud floated in the sky, their feathery surfaces a pale pearl pink. The map was silent, its usual cacophony of gunfire and shouts absent in the late hours.
The Scout let out a long sigh and took a deep draught of his drink. Now that the place was empty, it looked like nothing more than a long abandoned building complex, their faded blue and red façades foretelling of a greater era of prosperity long gone.
A ruse that had worked well against the lead addled minds of Teufort.
A ruse created so that they could continue this war, which had lost all purpose years ago. And while the Scout certainly didn't mind it all (or perhaps the five years of ceaseless fighting and dying and respawning was starting to get to his head), he couldn't help but ask himself how had it all gone so terribly wrong as he stared out at the desolate front lines. There had to be more to it than just a snap decision made in rebellion against an insult that even now followed him. There was more to it, every event adding more and more to his back until he had finally snapped.
"Having deep thoughts hrmmm?"
The words, accented with a dialect that didn't seem to be from anywhere in particular sliced through his thoughts like a sharp knife. The Scout didn't even need to look up to identify the man who had decided to sit down beside him.
There was the click of a lighter and a slim tendril of smoke lazily made its way through the summer breeze.
"So ya decided ta finally show ya face, ya French rat?" The Scout shot back, his gaze still on the quiet clearing below. "Or did ya have enough of pretendin' ta be doc?"
"On zhe contrary, I came out here for a mere smoke." Another wisp of smoke crossed the Scout's vision.
"Sure, sure." He snorted, not believing the Spy's story for a second.
Another silence.
"y'know, it could'a been different." The Scout finally said. "It didn't take much ta send me here."
"It didn't?" The Spy questioned curiously.
"Nah. Not really. I mean," He sighed. "It could'a gone differently. That double-crossin' dirtbag could'a stayed an'..." His gaze drifted down, towards the purple can in his hands. "man...I would've given anything ta know who my dad was as a kid. An' hell, ta know that he was a freaking real life spy outta some james bond movie not another shitbag from the street who'd done nothing , I...I…" He stopped and tried to choke back a sob. It was over . He couldn't cry. Not here, while spy of all people was watching. "...it could'a been great. I could'a been something. Or it could'a gone utterly shitfaced. I dunno. A lotta things could'a happened. Or maybe the Admin would'a had me on her team a different way."
"Or perhaps you had no choice." The Spy interjected. "Perhaps no matter what you do, your brother would always die and he would never be there."
"Perhaps. Perhaps the only thing I had a freaking choice in was if I ended up 'ere or dead in some cell in the middle of freaking nowhere. Or perhaps I had no freaking choice. Perhaps the Admin or what sick force is up there decided who the fuck I was gonna be on day one an' made me be it." The scout let out a small snort of laughter, dry and humourless. "Made me be...this. Some freak of nature stuck in some stupid endless war. Man, if I knew this team and this war was this fucking sick on day one, I would'a never joined."
"I think we all feel zhe same." The Spy dryly commented.
A silence followed, as both men stared out over the map, each one lost in their own thoughts.
And then finally….
"You're him aren't you?" The Scout asked, his gaze not wavering from whatever point in the distance he had been staring at.
"Oh, you've figured it out hmmm?" The Spy replied, smugness in his voice.
"Really dude? Really? Just…" He groaned in annoyance and finally turned his head to face the red-suited Spy. "Just quit it dude. It ain't funny. It ain't spooky or whatever the hell ya trying ya be. Just...just stop ya bastard."
The Spy's smug expression suddenly switched to one of shock.
He quickly recovered himself and putting out his cigarette on the cement floor of their perch, he swiftly got up.
"...aaand now ya going. Typical Spy."
"What did you expect?" The Frenchman looked over his shoulder at the Scout and smiled, his usual suave expression back on his balaclava clad face. "I am a Spy. Zhat is what I do."
"Ya mean running off at the first sign of danger? Running off as soon as ya bad choices catch up with ya?"
"Isn't zhat a little... hypocritical coming from you Scout hrmmm?"
"I run pal. I don't hide. And when ya catch me, I only hit harder. You, on the other hand…"
"Enough." He tried to silence the Scout with a hand, but the runner continued.
"...ya just hide. Ya run and ya hide. Well, guess what pal, ya been runnin' from me for twenty-three years pal, but ya can't hide from me forever. Ya can't continue this little game of yours where ya pop in an' outta my life, ruining my shit an' then disappearin' off doing that stupid laugh of yours when ya caught like some villain from some comic. So just quit it already. If ya want ta say something to me, just spit it out already. If ya wanna see me, quit disguising yaself as my teammates. An' if ya wanna say sorry for what ya did…" His eyes met the Spy's, identical steel blue eyes clashing, one pair full of smouldering fury and annoyance, the other pair strangely unreadable. "...ya can forget it. Ya can't apologise for fucking up my life like that. It's over and ya can't do anything about it. You got that pal?"
The Spy was silent for a long moment before turning away from the Scout.
"Adieu Scout." He said, pulling out another cigarette from his jacket pocket and lighting it. His voice sounded off, as if he was trying to hold back some emotion from taking over his voice. But while his voice was still steady, it was obvious that the Scout's words had hit him in some way, causing a fracture in his carefully crafted façade.
There was a cloud of reddish smoke and then suddenly, the Spy was gone, leaving Scout alone to his thoughts once more. Turning back to the rest of the map, the Scout let out a quiet sigh and took another draught of his drink, only to realise the can was empty.
Letting out a snort of annoyance, he threw the can over his shoulder, hitting the ground with a metallic clank behind him. Taking his bag off his back, he rummaged around in it, before pulling out another can, this time blue.
Giving the can a momentary glare of annoyance upon finding that it wasn't crit-a-cola, he pulled the tab and opened the soda. There was a momentary fizz from the can as some of its sickly green contents bubbled out of its container and onto the scout's hand wraps, before it calmed down back into the can.
Looking from the buildings before him to the sky above, the Scout took a sip of his drink. The pink and yellow undertones of the twilight had taken over the magnificent blues of the day, the few stray wisps of cloud left in the sky highlighted in red against the golden heavens. A stray bird of some form flittered across his view, its white plumage tinted a blood red from the setting sun. it circled the skies for a bit, before swooping down and settling on a perch on the wooden frame covering the bridge. The bird sat there for a few minutes, preening its feathers before taking off again, this time in the Scout's direction.
"Hey there lil' fella," The runner said, stroking the bird as it landed next to him on the ledge. Upon closer inspection, it proved to be one of Medic's doves, although given its lack of bloodstains, he couldn't exactly tell which. "Ya lost or somethin'?"
The dove looked at him, head tilted in what looked like curiosity.
"Heh...come on. It's gonna be dinner soon an' I bet Doc's been lookin' for ya." He got up, scooping up the dove in his free arm as he did so. The bird let out a squawk of protest at being picked up, before settling down in the crook of the Scout's elbow.
Walking away from the desolate bridge, Scout made his way through the faded blue concrete of their base, and then in from the fading daylight to the harsh fluorescent lights of the base's interior.
Walking back down the corridor with the dove nestled in his arm, the Scout turned into the common room.
No one seemed to noticed him as he entered, and he let out a small noise of disappointment as he looked around the room. Why wasn't anyone noticing him?
Pushing that question out of his mind, he turned his focus back to the room's occupants. Medic wasn't there, presumably still downstairs in his lab where the Scout had left him.
"Scoots?"
The Scout snapped his head to face the speaker, who was the squat form of their Engineer. He was looking at the Scout with unreadable goggled eyes, arms folded across his chest.
"Where in tarnation were ya? Demo needed ya in tha kitchen ta peel potatoes!"
"First of all, it ain't my turn ta peel the fuck-"
" Language ." The Engineer growled.
"-ing potatoes." The Scout continued, not caring what the engineer thought of his crude vocabulary the slightest. "It's Snipes turn. An' second of all, what I was doing ain't any of ya buisness hardhat. Now, ya know where Doc is? I found one of his birds flyin' around and ya know Doc gets all pissy if one of his birds is missin'..."
"Scout, hold on a sec..." The Engineer's attention had shifted from the youth to the white bird that was nestled in his arm. "Where in tarnation did ya find that bird?"
"The bird? It was just flying 'rou-HEY!" The Scout's sentence ended in a shout as the Texan tried to snatch the bird out of his arms.
"Lemme see that...well..." The Engineer examined the bird, roughly turning it and forcibly flexing its wings and legs. "Stuff me in a suit an' call me a Spy, it worked..."
"What the freaking hell dude?!" The Scout yelled, grabbing the dove out of the Engineer's hands. "Ya know how much doc would kill us if he saw ya treatin' one of his birds like that?! " He demanded, panic starting to tint his voice. While there were many things that could anger the Medic, manhandling one of his doves or, heaven help you, injuring it was a sure-fire way to send the Medic into a mad rage. And while the man might've seemed harmless enough with his innocuous job description and white, almost angelic get-up, the entire team knew that when angered, the Doctor was easily the most dangerous (and most unhinged) member of the team.
The Engineer however, didn't seem to care.
"Scout, give me that bird." He growled, making another grab for the dove, only for the Scout's faster reflexes to maneuver it out of his reach. "Ya don't know what ya holding."
"Dude, it's one of Doc's doves. I know exactly what it is dumbass!"
"It's more than that." He lunged for the dove a final time, his mechanical gloved hand finally grabbing ahold of it and pulling it out of the runner's grasp.
"Why? What did ya do to it?!" The Scout demanded, his voice getting increasingly panicked.
"Yes Dell, vhat did you do to it? "
Both men spun around to find the tall, pale form of Medic standing in the room's doorway, arms crossed and glaring down at the Engineer through his glasses, a muted rage burning fiercely in his brown eyes. Several of his doves were clustered around him, staring at the Engineer seemingly with the same fury in their beady eyes as they glared at the man holding one of their brethren by its neck.
"Ah...Josef…" The Engineer said, his tone surprisingly light for his situation. "Ya up early. Dinner ain't for another ten minutes."
"Dell," The Medic growled, his voice full of restraint as he tried to stop himself from attacking the man right here and now with his rubber gloved hands. "Vhy are you holding Schrödinger? I thought you said he vas dead ."
"Well...let's just say ya dove lived up ta his namesake...ah won't bore ya with tha details, with me being tha only quantum physicist here an' all...but mah testing with respawn put ya bird in a...interesting state. Ah guess he wasn't quite dead after all." He grinned, as if he had just solved some equation that had been bothering him. "Now, if ya excuse me, ah need ta run some tests on this here bird…"
" Nein ." The Doctor hissed, the cold blade of his words so sharp and foreboding it made even the Engineer pause. "Give me zhe dove. Now ."
"Doc, ah don't think ya understand...this here bird could be a breakthrough in physics…"
"I. Don't. Care. Give me Schrödinger now ." He held out a hand, waiting for the Engineer to relinquish the avian.
"Sorry Josef, but ah can't. Frankly, ah don't even know why ya so protective of these dang birds – ah mean, aint the reason ya keep them in tha first place is so ya can do ya sick experiments on them? As opposed to, yknow, usin' us? Ah mean, if ya need tha dove so badly, can't ya just go an'...ah dunno...clone it?"
There was a tense silence as the Medic glared at the Engineer, his anger towards the man so intense it was almost palpable in the common room.
"Dell," The Medic finally spoke, his voice dangerously cold and quiet. "If you are suggesting for a single second zhat I vould use one of my or any defenceless and innocent creature or person in any of my experiments, you are severely wrong. I vouldnever do such an inhumane thing. I am disgusted at zhe very idea zhat you vould think I vould do such a thing."
Dell paused for a moment, as if he was surprised by the Medic's conviction.
Which was just enough time for the Scout to nab Schrödinger out of his hands. Carefully giving the trembling white form to the Medic, he stepped away from the Engineer.
"Danke scout." The German said nodding, before turning around and swiftly exiting the room, his attention on the dove in his hands.
Not wanting to find himself at the centre of the inevitable outburst from the Engineer that would soon follow, the Scout hastily left the room too.
changelog 8-8-16
+added chapter
/well...apologies for another late-ish chapter...this was a bloody hard one to write, not to mention we had the steven nuke...I promise the next chapter shall be faster and full of scoots not doing much of importance to the plot
/also...you guys...look, I ain't gonna beg or the like, but...reviews and comments are welcome! I ain't going to hold chapters hostage or anything disgusting like that, but they're good motivation and a way for me to make sure that I'm on the right track and haven't done anything unspeakably bad...so please. do it for the squids! indicates at the abundance of squids flailing behind her they like reviews!