AN: Alright, I hope I did this chapter justice and that you all like it. FYI, I will be on vacation next week (with no wifi), so don't count on anything next week. That being said, I will be writing while on vacation. ;)

Chapter 8: Doctor's orders

XXX

River's POV

All the noise, all their thoughts, everything, drops away... and the only thing I hear is the beating of my heart. I can feel it… the adrenaline, as it enters my veins, and begins to circulate. It only takes a second, but every inch of me responds…fight.

The next thing I know it's chaos. I'm not sure who fired first, Flag or Deadshot, but the others are quick to follow suit.

"Hold them back past the line!" Flag yells over the gunfire.

This all feels eerily familiar. Like I've seen it all before… except it wasn't Flag that said it the first time, was it? I can't remember. But I don't have much more time to think about it as the first Reaver makes it to the line and I draw my kerambits.

"I really hate that fuckin' witch." I say as I begin to slice into the flesh of the Reaver in front of me.

XXX

Every person in that alleyway falls into a dance they know all to well; each one drawing their weapon of choice. All except two that is…

Chato couldn't bring himself to get into the fight. He had promised himself, he couldn't risk hurting anyone again. And on this battlefield? Too much could go wrong. He quietly slinks back; away from the fight.

Boomerang, on the other hand, was busy shotgunning beers in a side alley. However, he doesn't have long to enjoy his brew before Reavers begin to drop down from the fire escape above him. The first Reaver manages to knock Boomerang's beer out of his hand with a stray kick, while the next one manages to land a solid punch to Boomerang's right eye. This instantly pisses Boomerang off, who then draws two bladed boomerangs and begins slicing into the Reavers, charging out of the alleyway and entering the fight proper.

Deadshot, Flag, GQ, and Alpha team were sticking to their ARs, while Katana and River were slicing and dicing through anything that got close with their blades. Harley was smashing anything in sight with her bat, and Croc was ripping everything to shreds with his claws.

The Reavers are swarming the group, with many making it past Alpha team's front line. And they all seem to have a singular target in mind.

"Get off me! Get off me!" Flag screams as four Reavers begin grabbing his limbs and dragging him away. He can't seem to break their hold, and more continue to swarm him.

XXX

River's POV

I hear Flag screaming from the side of the battlefield. I have three Reavers on me and they don't seem to be letting up. I look to see who would be closest to help Flag.

"Harley!" I yell. "Help Flag!"

Harley takes a bat to a Reaver before looking at me and rolling her eyes. "Do I gotta?"

"Harley, he dies, we die!" Deadshot yells from in front of me.

"Uh..FINE!" She says as she charges at the Reavers dragging Flag away.

I turn back towards the frontline when I am hit across the face with a fist. I can taste the taste of copper in my mouth and immediately see red.

A growl emirates from my lips. "My turn…" I say to myself as I charge in front of Alpha team and Deadshot.

Once again, the noise around me drops away. There are no bullets flying, there are no screams, there is just the adrenaline in my veins, the beating of my heart, and the blades in my hands.

XXX

As River makes it past the front line, GQ yells out to her. "Tam! Fall Back!" But her gaze is laser focused and she doesn't acknowledge his presence.

"TAM!" Deadshot screams as he advances forward behind her, but again, she doesn't respond.

As Alpha team and Deadshot stop firing, afraid of accidentally hitting River, they are amazed by the sight before them. In a split second, River draws her gun and fires every round in her clip. Twelve bullets… twelve perfect bullseyes right between the advancing Reavers' eyes. The clip empties and she holsters the gun to go back to her blades.

There were at least half a dozen Reavers advancing, and she charges headlong into them. It's like a jungle cat, charging into a heard of wildebeests. Her bladed claws connect with the flesh of her opponents and she proceeds to swirl…swing…duck…and bend around them fluidly. Everyone watches as the smallest one on the squad takes on the Reavers with the grace of a dancer.

By the end of it, each one of her opponents lays dead at her feet, and she doesn't have a scratch on her.

XXX

River's POV

I'm drawn out of my bloodlust haze by the sound of my own breath. It's coming out hard and fast as I try and pump oxygen into my lungs and slow my racing heart. It takes a minute, and I let my head fall back and my eyes close.

"Inhale…exhale…." I tell myself over and over. "Inhale…exhale…."

After a minute, I turn back and walk towards where the squad and Alpha team are waiting. I'm too tired to try and block out everyone's thoughts… too tired to try and keep everything in check… and they flood into my brain like water breaking free from a dam.

It's a mix of awe and suspicion from most. A disbelief in what they just saw. How was it even possible? Even GQ and Katana, who had seen my skills first hand, were having a hard time rectifying it.

Deadshot, with his near perfect aim, has trouble understanding it as well. It had taken him practically his entire life to achieve the level of skill I had displayed with my gun, never mind the blades. "How the holy hell?" Is on repeat in his thoughts as I walk past him.

I'm just too tired to care what they all think tough. "You wouldn't believe her if she told you." Is all I say in response as I walk past him.

My slip in speech doesn't go unnoticed. It had been so long… so long… since I had felt this scrambled… unfocused. I know it's all the witch's doing, and I mentally remind myself I just need to try and hold it together.

By the time I make it where Harley is smashing a Reaver's head into the ground repeatedly with her bat, I all but collapse against one of the abandoned cars.

"Hey. Hey. come on." I tell Harley as I try and pause long enough to regain some energy.

"What? I saw it move. See? It flinched. I think." Harley says as she toes the Reaver with her foot.

"Speaking of which, want to explain this?" Flag says as he comes to stand near where I am sitting.

I don't say anything as my head drops back against the car I'm leaning against. "Reavers." I repeat.

"Yeah, you said that, but what is it? This guy had a $3,000 watch." Deadshot says as he points to a nearby corpse. "Is that a person?"

"It was. Now it's not… Hey, don't." I glare at Boomerang as he crouches down to knick the watch.

"What?" He says as he pockets the watch and shoots me a toothy grin.

I roll my eyes.

"So what are they?" Harley asks as all crowd around where I am sitting. Even GQ, Katana, and Alpha team draw in closer to hear my explanation of what we just encountered.

A chill creeps up my spine and before I can stop it, Zoe's words come barreling into my mind. "If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And, if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order."

I feel my hands shake as I bring them up to hold the sides of my head, trying desperately to keep her words locked away in my brain. "They're nightmares… something found hidden in the darkest corners of the mind. Something that should have stayed dead and buried."

"Well, they clearly ain't." Digger offhandedly remarks.

"So what are they?" Flag continues to probe.

"Don't think about what they are. All we need to do is kill them." I say as I manage to get to my feet and look Flag square in the eye. I know he can't hear my thoughts, but I am trying desperately to tell him to drop it, because he won't like anything else I have to say.

He seems to take the hint. "We got a job to do. Keep movin'. Get your squad moving." Flag says as he moves to continue pushing forward with Alpha team, GQ, and Katana.

I release a breath I didn't realize I was holding. "You heard him." I say to the rest of the squad. But unlike Flag, they don't want to let this drop.

"What are you not tellin' us?" Harley asks critically.

She knows something is off. That I didn't give Flag everything he wanted to hear. I hadn't expected to get anything past her, but I had hoped she would let it drop. "Don't expect this to be a walk in the park. We're in for a fight." I say quickly, hoping that it will be enough to appease her and the rest of the squad.

It seems to momentarily, until Digger points out that Chato was rather absent from the last one. "Hey, you were some help last time, princess."

"It's better this way. Trust me." Chato responds solemnly.

"Oh, yeah you're the fire bloke, eh?"

"Yeah, I was. Yeah."

This just seems to irritate Digger, and he pulls out his lighter and starts waiving it in Chato's face. "Right. Yeah. Hey. Well. look at here. It's fire."

"Cut the crap Digger." I say as I push past them. "Let's go." I know he doesn't play well with others, but I was hoping he wouldn't be quite so antagonistic. We really can't afford to lose anybody else at this point.

I don't get very far before I glance over and see Deadshot falling in step with me on one side and Harley on the other. "So where did you learn to fight like that?" He asks.

I sigh. Fuck. I don't want to deal with this, but there is no way to avoid it at this point. "Boarding school." I say flippantly with a chuckle. It wasn't a lie.

Digger, Chato, and Croc all draw in closer as Deadshot's voice gets louder. "Cut the crap Tam. You're holding an awful lot close to your chest and askin' us to follow you blindly." The others are mentally agreeing. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I stop short and turn towards Deadshot. His assumptions that I am some sick and twisted government fool doing this for my own amusement are unfounded, and I am getting too tired to try and hold my tongue. His thoughts are like daggers, and my anger is rising by the second.

"It's not crap." I seethe, no longer caring to keep up my cover. "Fine, you want to know so badly? You want to hear how I got carted away to a school that was a front for government experiments? You want me to tell you how they cut into my head and played around with it like it was their goddamn personal playground? I was put through more than you can imagine. I was trained through torture, and when I didn't get it right, they would just break me apart further."

The echo of my old self creeps into my mind. "Show me off like a dog, old men covered in blood, it never touched them but they're drowning in it... so much loss…"

I shut my eyes and try and stop the memories from bubbling up. But it's a useless fight. I can feel it… along my skull, along my spine, covering my arms and legs… everywhere they sliced, injected, or broke. My entire body aches thinking about how many times they strapped me to the metal hospital table, how many times they tried to push further and further past my limits.

They are all stunned into silence. Even Digger, who's mind has been a jumble of things up until this point doesn't know what to think.

"Well there you go! We all have fucking scars." I say as I turn and keep walking, trying desperately to hide the tears threatening to spill from my eyes..

Deadshot doesn't say anything… none of them do. But they are all thinking along the same lines.

"…It looks like you might be one of us..."

"Hey wait up!" Harley says a second later. I don't stop, but I do slow to allow her to catch up.

"PTSD." It's not a question, it's her diagnosis. "Aversion to physical touch, reckless behavior, hyper-awareness… all classic symptoms."

I laugh and wipe away the last few tears at the corners of my eyes. "I thought I was getting better."

"Not surprising that you're relapsing. Out here? The triggers? It's understandable." She says sweetly.

I don't say anything, but let her words wash over me. And here I thought she was the crazy one. Maybe we're all just crazy.

"I'm gonna hug you now, FYI." She says a moment before she grabs me into another bear hug. I tense, but slowly let myself relax. She pulls away after a moment and tugs on my arm. "Come on! I know what you need, Doctor's orders."

I feel too numb to even try and figure out what she is talking about, but let her pull me along the street. We get up near Flag and Alpha team when she takes her bat and swings it into one of the store windows. The glass shatters under the force of her swing and it catches everyone off guard.

"Seriously? What the hell is wrong with you people?" Flag yells as he and the rest of the team all turn with their weapons drawn.

But Harley pays him no mind as she plucks two designer bags, one multi-colored for her and a black one for me, out of the window. "We're bad guys. It's what we do." She says as she tosses one of the bags to me. "Besides, we needed some retail therapy."

Flag looks at me with shock written all over his face, but I just shrug. Fuck it, Harley was right. "Doctor's orders." I say as I sling the bag over my shoulder.

"You are a bad influence on her." Flag says as he points at Harley.

"Whatever you say Colonel Tight-pants!" Harley says as she brushes Flag off.

Her words jolt my awareness into overdrive. She wouldn't and couldn't have known what that would mean to me. But it's the little things that matter, and the next thing I know, I am wrapping my arms around the psychotic Doc. She's surprised, but returns the hug in earnest after a second.

"Flag, make them stop. They're kinda creepy when they are like that." GQ says jokingly.

I peak my head out of the hug and stick my tongue out at him.

"Yeah, you are definitely a bad influence on her… Move out." Flag says as he directs everyone to keep moving.

I break away from Harley and smile at her. "Thanks Doc." I say before I turn and continue walking ahead of the squad.

XXX

Harley smiles as River walks ahead of the squad. But her smile turns into a frown before she turns and faces Deadshot and Boomerang.

"You!" She says as she points at Deadshot. The look on their face tells him to tread carefully.

The two men share a look of confusion between them. "I ain't done shit." Deadshot says defensively.

"Oh yes you have, and you are going to knock it off. You hear me? She's going through enough, and your behavior isn't going to help."

Deadshot has an inkling of what Harley is talking about and groans. "How the hell did you expect me to know what she'd been through."

"I didn't… known of us could have. But now we have an idea. So cut her some slack and try and play nice."

Boomerang snickers. "That's rich, coming from you Harley." But he immediately regrets saying it as Harley's fury becomes apparent on her face.

"Don't even start! You are way worse with what you have been up to."

"I haven't been up to anything!" Boomerang protests.

"Oh yes, you have! You like her, and don't try and deny it because you are making it very fuckin' obvious." Harley cuts Boomerang off before he can try and deny it. "But she's going to have trouble with that. So if you like her, you are going to listen to what I have to say, and keep your mouth shut while I say it."

Boomerang wisely doesn't say anything, but Deadshot does. "You're on your own for this one." He says as he extricates himself from the conversation. Chato and Croc wisely move to leave with Deadshot.

"So how should I go about this then, Harl?" Boomerang says as he waits for her to lecture him.

Harley softens. "You're gonna to need to be patient Digger. I know that ain't your strong suit, but let her set the pace of things. If you push her to talk or do things, it's not gonna work in your favor."

"So what, you want me to be the 'perfect gentleman'." Boomerang says with air quotes.

"You will figure it out." Harley says as she turns and walks away.

XXX

River's POV

The next twenty minutes pass in silence, thankfully, and by the time we make it HVT-1's location I am calm enough to compose myself again. We're still going to likely have to deal with more Reavers, at least this time I know to expect them.

"Take a knee." Flag commands as Alpha team and Katana gather around.

"Our body's at the top of that building. We get up there ... Pull them out of the vault they're hiding in. Helos extract them off the roof."

"Check." Alpha team responds in sync.

Flag turns to me next. "Tam, you want to get that chopper ready?"

I give him a small salute and reply quickly. "Roger."

I hear Deadshot walking up behind us now, not bothering to stop where Alpha team is getting their instructions. "What do say we get this over with?" He says as he walks past all of us and up to the front door.

"What the hell? Deadshot. Fall back." Flag says as he scrambles after him.

As Deadshot reaches the door and touches the handle, the entire glass door shatters and creates a loud clattering commotion.

"Well, if they didn't know we are here yet, they sure as shit do now." I say as I fall in line behind Deadshot and Flag.

The entire atrium of the building is deserted, and everyone begins to gather near the front reception area. I look around quickly and notice the power is still on, and that there are elevators nearby. I move over to where Harley is standing and quietly whisper to her. "I need to borrow your phone." I say as I lead her to the elevators.

XXX

"Look like we have a spot of luck, eh? Be a walk in the park. Easy peasy." Boomerang says as he leans against the main reception desk, chuckling to himself.

"Don't make me shoot you." Deadshot replies barely containing his irritation.

There is a moment of silence for an audible ding echoes around the atrium, and everyone's attention snaps to the elevators. It's then that they see River and Harley making faces at the rest of the squad as the elevator rides up.

"Goddamn it! I'm gonna fuckin' kill them." Flag yells. "Go! Go! Go! Go!" He screams as he and everyone else race to the stairs.

"Hey, they had the right idea. I should have went with them!" Boomerang huffs as they make it up the first three flights of stairs.

Deadshot is the only one who says anything. "I will fuckin' shoot you!"

XXX

AN: Okay, so not as evil a cliffhanger this time, right? (Hides behind Croc again, just in case).