Captain Davenport knows it's about time he comes home when Taako's voice wafts through his farspeech stone. As friendly as they are, the elf hasn't called him since the Day of Story and Song. This has to be important. He's been traveling since they defeated the Hunger and although he has been feeling a bit homesick for his loved ones, he hasn't been able to shake the feeling that if he goes to land once more he may never return to his ship again.
He takes a deep breath before answering. Just in case. "Hail and well met, Taako-"
"Davenport, get your ass to the Bureau ASAP," Taako snaps. There's a tinny feedback crackling behind his voice, the type that only comes with someone on the other end of the line not being on the same plane of existence, and Davenport winces.
Then Taako's words register and he jerks back, staring at the farspeech stone like Taako can see his incredulity through the sheer force of his expression alone.
"I'm never going back there again."
"Cap'n, I really don't have time to argue about this with you." Taako sounds strained. There's shifting in the background now, like he's hefting something up. Cloth rustles. Someone lets out a pained whimper and Davenport feels his ears prick. A pit opens in his stomach.
"What was that? Who was that? Taako, what's going on?"
"What did I just say about not having time?" Taako says, exasperated. But he relents in the next moment. "You gotta come help Lucretia, okay?"
Taako wants him to help Lucretia? Surely somewhere in the ether the Raven Queen is screaming as hell freezes over.
Even as ice floods his veins, Davenport feels his gorge rise, his cheeks flush with heat. Rage pricks at the backs of his eyes and for a moment, his tongue doesn't work. He's back to being a silent, dumbstruck idiot.
He's back to being what she made him.
Then his tongue unties itself and he's spitting mad. "What could possibly make you think I would be willing to come back to help her?"
There's a weak, resigned sounding laugh- That's not Taako's voice, he knows that voice what the hell is going on here?- that chokes off abruptly. Taako sounds like he's gritting his teeth as he speaks and Davenport's hands tighten on the railing of his ship reflexively. The hairs on the back of his neck rise and his eyes dart to and fro in a search for danger that he knows he simply won't find. Not here.
No, the danger is at the Bureau. Where Lucretia is.
"You're going to help us," Taako explains, keeping a very tight grip on his tone, "because there are at least four people who desperately want to assassinate Lucretia hanging out in her living room as we speak and I can't hold Rope Trick for very much longer. And because despite all she's done, she's your friend, Davenport."
Davenport's heart drops to somewhere around his toes as Taako's words worm their way inside his brain.
Well. That should do it.
This has happened before. The poison Killian saved her from. The people at the cliff's edge, ready to throw her over. The blade to her throat.
He never told Lucretia about the other times- not that he could, when she reduced him to little more than a husk, so stupid he couldn't even say anything more than his own name- but there were others. Oh, yes. There were others.
He may not be able to forgive much of what Lucretia has done, but by the gods, there's some blood on his hands he has spilled in her name that Davenport doesn't mind if he never washes off. Some of the things he'd seen- some of the things he knows her enemies wanted to do to her-
There was a group once that worshiped the Hunger. He'd heard whispers behind Lucretia's back, had ferreted them out, had seen what they were capable of, what they had planned for Lucretia herself-
He'd done things that day he'll never forget. That doesn't mean he'll ever regret them either.
Lucretia never found out. He'd made sure all their friends did.
Killian and Carey had steered clear of him for a while after that episode; Davenport still isn't sure how much they know about what happened but at the time, he couldn't care less. Now, he figures it's best to let sleeping dogs lie. He'd thought Lucretia hadn't noticed how close he'd stuck after that, but for a while Davenport has had the sneaking suspicion she'd been glad for the company. Or worse; that she needed the protection. And he left. Davenport left her and now something has happened and that laugh -
He's never heard Lucretia make a sound like that before. It sends a shiver down his spine just thinking about it. It makes him think of barren land, wind rattling bare branches against a blood red sky.
No, he'd be very happy never to hear a noise like that come from her mouth ever again.
"Davenport!" Taako's voice breaks through his reverie and Davenport realizes with a guilty jolt that he hasn't been listening. "Look, just get here as soon as you can, alright? Killian and Carey are on their way but I haven't heard from them since I sent word almost a day ago- I wouldn't be surprised if these bastards have been stopping us from getting any outside help- and we can't exactly stay here while I call every single person I know for help. We're sitting ducks, and-"
His voice breaks and Davenport's heart leaps to his throat. He throws himself back from the railing of his ship, already hurtling towards the control room.
"Taako? Taako, what's happening?"
He's slipped back into his 'Captain' voice, the one he used to use in the Starblaster days, when his crew would grow upset and worried and ragged and he'd held them all together with the palms of two shaking hands.
"She's hurt, Dav," Taako says quietly. "She's hurt real bad. We don't have a lot of time."
"I'm on my way," Davenport promises. It's such an easy vow to make.
"Thanks-" Taako cuts off with a curse. Davenport skids around a corner, careens into a door, and fumbles to keep himself upright. He doesn't know what a newborn foal feels when it first tries to stand, but the weak, wobbly feeling in his knees when Taako's line goes silent for a moment may be giving him some idea.
" Taako- "
"Shit, you gotta get here fast, amigo, I can't hold this Rope Trick much longer. Lucy's losing a lot of blood; I gotta get her to the clerics, like, yesterday ."
There's a weak murmuring in the background and Davenport thinks he might just catch the end of a sentence. It freezes his heart solid.
"-don't even bother. It'll be over soon-" It's just enough to make Davenport's hands curl into fists, clenching and unclenching like he's looking for a neck to throttle. He's not sure anymore if it's rage at Lucretia or rather for her that courses through him. The rest is muffled from distance and Taako has obviously pulled away from his farspeech stone when he answers.
"Shut the fuck up Lucretia, you officially don't get a say in this anymore." Taako's voice gets louder again as he speaks into the stone again and Davenport starts breathing again. "Look, get anybody you can and get here now, okay?"
"We'll be there."
"Fan-fucking-tastic. Gotta go, Cap."
"Wait-"
He hesitates even though he knows- he knows- that time is most certainly of the essence right now.
"Kinda on a time crunch here, Cap'n," Taako reminds him aptly. "What's up?"
"Why me? Why call me, out of all of us?"
Taako snorts. It's so familiar Davenport is thrown almost violently back to the Starblaster. "You're the only one of us with a ship big enough to get everybody here. And Dav-"
It's Taako's turn to fall silent for a long second.
"Yes?"
"Be angry at her tomorrow, when we're all not dead, okay?"
Something settles, feather-light and warmer than Davenport expects, in his chest. He huffs- the closest to a laugh that he's going to get in a long time- and nods even though Taako can't see.
"Got it. See you two soon- and be safe, alright?"
"Way ahead of you, compadre."
