Chapter Twenty Two
Wraith opened her eyes as a surge of panic crested her, and as she struggled to draw breath, she realised that she didn't know where she was. The world was dark as she dug her fingers into the ground she lay on.
Her ribs ached. Her back throbbed, like she'd been thrown.
She wheezed as her frantic gaze swept what little she could see. Where was she?
Where had she been last? The panic in her head had all her thoughts jumbled, and she felt displaced, like she'd been thrown into someone else's head, the arms she moved not her own.
A dream?
A vision?
No help came from the Voices. Were they even there? Why couldn't she get up?
She felt the heart in her chest like a loose stallion fleeing.
Night. The sky was up there, somewhere that she couldn't see. There was a tower, falling. Movement! In the dust cloud was a man, his face twisted in pain and rage, painted in blood. There were bodies at his feet.
The smoke, so much smoke, everywhere. It was acrid. It forced itself into her nose, the stink of it. Not sweet like Bangalore's, or hot like grenades and gunfire.
Flesh burning.
Wraith lay on her back, body uncooperative as she watched him. Her blood was filled with dread, and she had no memory why.
But this man, she knew he was Fear.
The smoke. Her lungs burned. It felt like the air was turning to water as she breathed it in, familiar somehow.
This was an ending. There was loss here. It cried to her from somewhere across the Void. Her brain was full of wasps, yelling and angry to be swamped in treacle. Paralysis.
Wraith tried to breathe and couldn't, the dreadful smoke leaking down her throat like a solid thing, like a snake. She choked, but it didn't help.
He had spied her, and his footsteps were deep and even as he stalked toward her. She tried to move, tried to get away, but all she could do was watch, immobile, drowning in fear and unable to breathe.
He got close enough for her to see what he was holding, the strange contraption in his hands. It fizzed and buzzed and cried out like it was alive. Some kind of metal, moving in his hands.
He knelt over her.
No!
She tried to scream but couldn't.
His face was moving, swimming, as though it wasn't real, was made of water. The fear. The loss. But his face… His face was- was-
The Void.
He pushed the screaming contraption into her chest and her body burned in agony, her muscles tightening so hard they felt like they'd pop and curl, burst into flame like kindling.
Then the blackness came, cold and empty, and Wraith let it.
~.~
She woke with a jolt. The air was cool, and an involuntary shiver ran up her spine when she drew breath. Her pulse was normal as she blinked in the darkness, the ache in her lungs gone. She felt wholly out of place in her own skin as her mind caught up and she swallowed, expecting a dry pain that didn't come.
The Pit. She was where she'd fallen asleep, tucked into a shadowed corner where they'd chosen to get some rest. She cocked her head automatically to listen briefly, but the air was quiet. She shook her head as she propped herself up, the rough of the cement grating against her gloves and helping her to ground herself back in her own self.
The sense of foreboding in her gut lingered, but that was something she would have to deal with later. She forced the dream from her mind, reaching for the bottle of water beside her. As she began twisting the lid, the faint scrape of the lid against the metal was followed almost instantly by something else.
A sound so imperceptibly small that she almost didn't hear it. Every muscle in Wraith's body froze as she sucked in a breath. The faint, muted click of a sniper bolt being drawn impossibly slowly. She sensed the shadow more than saw it, and in a single fluid motion she twisted shut the bottle lid and dropped it as she threw herself from the ledge with yell.
"Barker!"
The Kraber decimated Darwyn's shields in a single round.
The Void welcomed her as she darted across the room, warping the reflexive fire that turned her way at her cry, one hand sweeping the goggles down from her forehead. The archer was already on the ground behind a crate, scrambling for a shield cell as she reached him, sleep-blurred eyes tracking her movement as she dropped back into the space beside him, dragging in a fresh breath and grabbing his shoulder before allowing the Void to guide them back in a second, tunnel collapsing the instant she let go.
The Pit exploded in light, bright even behind her goggles, and she tossed a grenade as she slammed her side against another crate, Darwyn filling his shields at her feet.
"Thanks."
"Let me know when." she answered, levelling her Flatline on the top of the crate and firing at the startled legend yelling from the large, flashing ball that Barker had lobbed right into the centre of the Pit. The air was a garbled mess of yelling and gunfire, but Wraith focused on the shield she was breaking.
"Full squad." came Barker's clipped alert, "One's got cover at the tunnel mouth!"
Wraith slid the pin from a second grenade with her teeth and drew back her arm, launching its weight in a high arc without halting fire, rifle supported by the crate.
A howl. Her target dropped just as the ordinance went off. The member from the tunnel mouth dashed suddenly across the open room, skating behind a crate too fast for Wraith to hit and flanking instantly. She ducked, aware leaving her cover put her in line of sight for the third, following Darwyn as the man returned the fire in the hopes their shields would hold out.
Darwyn's voice was level and devoid of jest in the seconds they fired.
"When."
If Wraith were the type to laugh in a firefight, she just might have then.
Several rounds peppered her armour, but the gunman was down before it cracked. In a swift movement Darwyn stood, swinging his bow from one shoulder and notching an arrow, loosing it toward the last standing opponent and following it with a second.
Barker's Eva blasted twice, and their PDAs alerted them that another squad had fallen.
Wraith wasted no time, tugging a shield cell from her pack and yanking the lever.
"Recharging shields."
"Roger."
"Ditto."
She shook the adrenaline from her arms and reloaded as she marched over to the dead. Regulars in their roster, no Elites.
"Good job, guys." she commended as she tipped one pack over the ground in the fastest way to sweep it for anything useful.
"Good looking out." Barker answered her, and she flashed him a brief look of thanks.
"That disco ball sure is somethin'." Darwyn whistled as he too emptied a pack over the ground.
Barker's hum was curt, but it was something. Wraith was pleased to note the animosity from earlier seemed faded and when Darwyn met her eye she smiled faintly, nodding in approval. He huffed a grin and turned back to his loot.
As they were finishing up, another beep.
"Ring." she said, unnecessarily.
"Runoff?" Darwyn suggested as they swung their gear over shoulders and made for the closest route out towards the new ring placement.
"Wise." Barker agreed, and though Wraith ignored the comically raised eyebrows Darwyn shot her when their third wasn't looking, she was reassured that perhaps a sense of cohesion could be salvaged well enough to win.