Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs. Blue or any of the show's characters. They are the rightful properties of Rooster Teeth.
Chapter Eighteen:
Vanessa Kimball paced the length of her office for the umpteenth time, annoyingly aware of the Unsc Embassy's representative watching her motions as she did so. The slightly graying blond-haired human nervously tapped his twitchy fingers on her desk as if in rhythm with her steps.
Normally, a frustrated Kimball would have snapped at her "guest" to knock off his anxious habit, but she currently lacked the energy to do so. Besides, Doyle had yet to remark on her pacing habit, so she supposed it was only fair for her to display a similar courtesy.
Briefly, the Seas woman with ice-colored tinge wondered just when the rather new representative's presence at Guild Headquarters, much less her office, had become such a customary component in her life that she honestly was unsure if still describing him as a "guest" was all that accurate.
Certainly none of Doyle's numerous predecessors, as none of the Unsc citizens who worked at the embassy seemed to find life in the Outer Regions charming enough to stay there for too long, had ever even wanted to step foot through the doorway, much less argue their way through several cups of tea with her. Besides Doyle, none of them had wanted to get actively involved in Guild matters at all. It had, at times, given her a level of freedom she had cherished. Still, the blatant show of indifference to matters not directly involving the Unsc had infuriated her to no end.
As a result, Kimball had at first found herself rather annoyed by Doyle's insistence on staying abreast of Outer Region affairs. Suspicious of it, in fact. Now, however? Now, she wasn't quite sure how to react to the fact that she had gotten more or less used to his presence here, or that she had even started to look forward to their heated debates.
Truly, that realization only caused her emotions to become all the more twisted and conflicted when it came to Donald Doyle, especially since she was well-aware of the growing rumors that had begun circulating about how the reason that Doyle had kept his position for so long was largely due to the two of them having become somewhat "intimate" together. She didn't know whether or not Doyle himself was aware of said rumors, though she knew that such topics, truthful or not, most likely did not put him in high regard with the empire.
Shaking her head to yet again dispel such thoughts, Kimball let out a frustrated sigh as her pacing stopped. Her brown eyes landed on the waning light pouring forth from the window overlooking the bustling city square below, colorful bursts of bright light occasionally flaring up like fireworks.
"I'm still uneasy about having sent everyone on that mission," Kimball admitted at length, frowning in thought as she resisted the urge to pick up her pacing yet again, "Especially given how many unknown variables there were."
The fact that communication had been more or less silent since the mission had begun was certainly adding to her sense of unease.
Doyle frowned himself as Kimball turned back around to face him. The human leaned forward and steepled his hands together over her desk, eyes regarding her carefully before he spoke. "It is quite unlike you to second guess your own plans, Miss Kimball." He informed the brown-skinned Seas, "Your decisiveness is one of your most admirable traits."
There was an awkward pause following that admission, as if Doyle's spoken words had suddenly caught up to his brain. Kimball blinked, perplexed. Doyle's face took on a decidedly crimson hue that reminded her of Sarge's preferred color. He grimaced, opening his mouth to speak once more—
Only for the door to slam open behind the pair, cutting off any embarrassed flustering Doyle might have tried sputtering out just then.
It was North Dakota who entered into the room, his steps hurried with a rather serious expression plastered onto his face. Briefly, Kimball realized that the overly bright bursts of colorful light that she had seen in the darkening street outside her window must have been Tucker's son, Junior, still hanging out with Theta. The somewhat older boy had no doubt been giving him a helping hand with his "power up" ability. It also explained why North was alone now.
"Sarge just got into contact with us." North Dakota noted without any preamble, "They could use some assistance."
Kimball's frown lengthened as Doyle stood up rather shakily from his seat, all earlier signs of him being flustered fading away as he did so. Well, she had been worried about the lack of communication… The Guild leader quickly dispelled that thought from her mind, "What do they need?" She asked the former Freelancer sharply.
"From the sound of things, a pretty quick transport to just about anywhere away from their current location." The violet and green-wearing agent informed her, clearly hoping for a prompt response.
Kimball nodded curtly, "Which they will get immediately." She inclined her head slightly in North's direction, "If you could sign out one of the Teleportation Orbs…"
"That's already been taken care of courtesy of York and Delta." North assured her with a slight, reassuring smile.
Kimball nodded her head gratefully once more, thankful for the Guild members' quick thinking. She leaned over her desk with her webbed hands pressed against its cool surface as Doyle resumed his nervous twitching, deep in thought herself about this turn of events.
It didn't sound as if the group had been in a position to make a lengthy report, but hopefully they would soon be able to gather a much clearer view on what the hell was going on exactly once they were all back at the Guild.
The night air was rather chilly, filled with more tension than Wyoming personally cared for as he circled around his former Freelancer comrade at what he construed to be a safe distance. Well, safe enough, at any rate.
From a safer distance, Gamma stood watch by the outskirts of the clearing they had made their way to following Florida's suggestion that they find somewhere quiet to "talk." That had probably been a good suggestion on his part, as the sounds of a distant commotion coming from Rat's Nest made its way over to them on the wind. Every so often, Gamma turned his head in that direction when there was so much as a tree branch breaking though, personally, Wyoming didn't really feel the need to be so jumpy on account of whatever mess Charon had stumbled into because of Price's designs.
No, rather, the man standing calmly in the middle of his circular pacing was the main reason why the white-armored mercenary was currently on edge. After all...
"I must admit, seeing you again is quite the pleasant surprise." Wyoming heard himself say, focusing on the surprising sense of elation that he was currently feeling instead of the worry that the other shoe was about to fall, "I hadn't expected that we would run into each other again following…" he paused, trying to come up with a more diplomatic choice of words, always a must in his new profession in particular he had found, "How we parted ways."
Florida raised a brown-haired eyebrow in mild amusement, his eyes never leaving the other Freelancer's form, "Are you referring to when you left in order to pursue more "lucrative" career options?"
There was no trace of accusation or hurt in the blue-wearing man's voice then, but Wyoming flinched at the reminder all the same. However, he tried covering that particular slipup with a careless shrug of his shoulders, "Well, it hardly made sense to stay dirt poor just because that blasted project fell through."
"That is correct, Reggie." Gamma agreed in his monotone way of speaking, eerily white eyes fixated on the underbrush.
The other man let loose a sigh and shook his head, "That response is just so very like you, Reginald."
There was a slight tinge of hurt in Florida's words then that gave Wyoming a momentary pause, "You used to love that side of me, as I recall." He stated softly.
Gamma was very much looking pointedly away now, as Florida pierced Wyoming with his gaze and smiled slightly, "A part of me still does." He admitted out loud with ease, as if talking about the weather.
The admission was enough to cause Wyoming to stare back at him in open astonishment. As much as Florida bent the truth for his missions or outright lied for them, the mercenary had never known him to be anything but open when it came to his emotions, whenever he cared enough to actually put them on display that is.
Florida's back straightened ever-so-slightly, the momentary glimmer of fondness that he had allowed to show in his eyes hardening in the same instance, "At any rate, that sentiment of yours certainly makes things easier."
Wyoming and Gamma shared a perplexed look at the brown-haired man's words, the Fragment rather unhelpfully shrugging his shoulders in response.
"What would you say, Reggie, if I could get you a job with a much larger paycheck than what Charon is paying the two of you currently?" Florida asked him, a smirk crossing over his features as he unhooked his axe, "All you would need to do is prove your worth."
Wyoming raised an eyebrow, rather intrigued by the notion, "I'm listening." He muttered, mustache twitching in anticipation as he drew out his own weapon, "But it will have to be quite an impressive number you're talking about."
South Dakota fucking hated using the Teleportation Orbs to travel, largely due to the numerous hassles that their limitations often meant having to put up with. But, without a conveniently located airfield anywhere remotely close to Rat's Nest and Donut's ability to teleport long distances with a large group of people apparently pretty much nonexistent at the moment, beggars really couldn't be choosers, you know?
So, when her armored boots landed with a heavy thud on the ground, she bit back the complaints that were just about ready to stream off her tongue. However, South did roll her eyes at how Washington somehow managed to stumble even though he was only a mere meter off the ground, crashing with a barely suppressed yelp right into his built-to-always-land-on-his-feet not-boyfriend Tucker. The Beast Folk had to rather tightly wrap his arms around Washington's waist to steady the blond and to keep them both from falling, the Seas instinctively doing the same as they stared wide-eyed into the other's faces, mere centimeters apart…
South rolled her eyes for a second time. She was far too sober for this shit. "Hey, morons," she called over to the stunned pair, "Save it until you get a fucking room, all right?"
That got the two moving, and she smirked somewhat at how quickly they pulled apart while pointedly looking anywhere but at each other, blushes still on their faces. With a looming scowl, the orchid-armored human female glanced around at the others.
C.T. was busily pulling a rather hapless Simmons to his feet from where he had fallen face first onto the ground, a curious "And you say this happens every time?" coming out of the brown-armored Freelancer's lips as she tried to conceal her mild amusement.
The heavyset Orc, Grif, that seemed stuck to the redhead's side like glue gave Simmons a pat on the back as the maroon-wearing man stuttered out a low-sounding remark to the petite brunette complete with a thankful nod before scampering off to check on his cousin. Grif watched Simmons with what almost looked like trepidation. Relationship drama, she mouthed to C.T. when she caught the woman's eyes.
Grif's sister flitted over to stand beside her brother then, remarking in a loud voice how "It always feels like you drank a shit-ton of booze when you use those things, just without any of the fun consequences afterwards!"
Grif sighed, his dark eyes still following Simmons even as he rolled them while he exclaimed in a rather loud voice for everyone in the vicinity to hear, "Goddamn it, Kai!"
Bored of the sibling dispute, South turned her attention to the two junior Guild members or whatever they were, Volleyball and Palomo. They were talking to the people she vaguely recognized as Filss, Sheila, Lopez, and Sarge. Nearby them, Andersmith was standing with his charge, Jensen, as well as the Bitters and Matthews kids. The four looked rather out-of-place just then, as if they had stumbled upon the group of fighters by accident.
Her eyes drifted towards Donut, who was tiredly leaning against the tree that Doc had moved him to before the medic had gone to check on the injured Carolina. The pink-wearing man was obviously drained from his earlier teleportation stunt, but as long as he was still breathing South didn't really care too much.
C.T. caught her eye again just as Tucker and Washington had gotten over their flustered state of denial enough to check up on the rather weary dirty blond themselves. She gave a small sort-of smile as she began to walk over to the other woman…
South turned her head sharply to the side to ignore the sudden trill in her chest. She did not need to be dealing with emotions she had repressed a long time ago right now, damn it! Unfortunately, the action of swiveling her neck only caused her to take in the scenery of the rundown town they had teleported into.
"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me." South mumbled under her breath, recognizing the no-name village she had met Florida in when she had first walked into this whole fucked-up mess, "This shithole again?!"
"Beggars really can't be choosers, you know." An infuriatingly familiar voice quipped up just then, South's ice blue eyes zoning in on York and his sidekick Delta a few meters away, "Especially not when you need some place quiet and out of the way in order to avoid detection for a few days."
"Oh, fuck off, York." South said as she rolled her eyes and gave him the finger for good measure.
…Of fucking course York would be involved in this somehow. It was starting to turn into a regular Freelancer reunion. She bitterly wondered who else from her past might inexplicably show up. The thought of her brother suddenly appearing with Theta in tow made her sick.
"Always a pleasure, South." York muttered sarcastically back at her, "Truly."
"We had also been making our way here on an assignment when the call for assistance reached us." Delta ignored the enmity between the two former Freelancers, "I apologize for any discomfort, Agent South."
"Yeah fucking right." South scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest.
York narrowed his one good eye at the orchid-wearing woman, clearly not liking her rudeness towards his emotional replicant friend, "You know, South, I almost forgot just how much of a—"
But he stopped abruptly at a commotion behind them. South turned her head in that direction as well when she saw the tan-armored man's face pale considerably in alarm.
Doctor Grey and Doc were both leaning over Carolina, the foxlike Beast Folk pressing her hands tightly over one of the cyan-wearing woman's hands where it was lying against her stab wound. All three hands were covered in blood. The two healers were conferring in hushed tones with one another while Church and Simmons hovered nervously close by their remaining family member, Church's restraining hand on Simmons' arm in an attempt to keep him from using his healing powers as well since the redhead was clearly too exhausted to assist. Tex stood directly behind Church, her hand clasped tightly onto his shoulder while her other one gripped Caboose's as well while Four Seven Niner tried reassuring her anxious brother with quiet words.
"Carolina!" York rushed past South in a hurry while South rolled her eyes again as she followed because that fucking figured, "What happened?" He asked the group at large.
"It's…a long story, York." Carolina managed to get out through gritted teeth, "But I'm fine."
Doctor Grey rolled her dark eyes at the redhead's rather adamant tone, "Hardly." She stated, pointedly ignoring the pain-filled glare that Carolina sent her way as she turned to York instead now that he had bent down to grip Carolina's free hand with his own tightly, "Is there perhaps an inn anywhere close by where we could get her looked over properly?"
York reluctantly stood up once more, both he and South saying "Yes." at the exact same time. The two glared at one another briefly before York tore his gaze away to help move Carolina.
Dexter Grif watched Kai tag along with Volleyball and the other younger members of their ragtag traveling party as they began to make their way in the direction of the inn that South and York both apparently knew about.
The orange-wearing man had to admit, if the situation weren't so dire, the sight of the two former Freelancers trying to constantly elbow one another to get to the front of the line would have been absolutely hilarious.
He did, however, actually have to stifle his laughter when Doctor Grey got fed up with them and threatened that she would well and goodly make sure they would both need medical attention themselves if they so much as jostled Carolina while York and several others were trying to move her. That comment was apparently enough to get both South and York to quiet down, perhaps sensing just how capable the dark-skinned woman was at carrying out such a threat.
The Orc could see Kai's wings fluttering happily behind her back as she always had the habit of doing when she was excited over something, the half-Orc and half-Beast Folk gesturing animatedly at something that Volleyball had just said to her. He couldn't help but smile slightly and shake his head. His little sister definitely moved fast when someone caught her eye. Grif was already trying to calculate what the odds of her getting pregnant would be this time in his head, though he had to stop, as always, due to the increasing ways his brain constantly threatened to break over the absurd-yet-altogether-oddly-real chances of that occurring.
After all, Kai was always, always full of surprises.
Grif took the rather sluggish pace the group was going in as an opportunity to scan his eyes over the village proper, frowning at what he saw. The nondescript ramshackle buildings could belong to any other poor village in the Outer Regions. Fuck, it brought to mind his and Kai's own town for instance. But, there was something oddly familiar about the place they were currently in too, something that he couldn't quite write off completely as being just passingly familiar.
There was a sense that he had walked this very road once before, that Grif had seen that very same Seas shopkeeper who was currently scowling at their group of newcomers from behind a grimy window. His feet seemed to stop moving on their own accord as a chillingly cold realization swept over him.
He had been here before, in fact. On a mission for Charon.
The sudden spike in his nerves at the realization was not evidently lost on Simmons. Grif hadn't exactly mastered concealing very unexpected bursts of emotions from the bond that the Linking Magic had created between the two of them as well as he could lingering ones. The maroon-wearing human paused from his hesitant, anxiety-ridden trailing after his wounded relative to glance over towards Grif in concern.
"Grif? What's wrong?" Simmons' voice was still too quiet and contemplative, still too tired and worried sounding all at once for Grif's liking. He didn't even really need the Linking Magic to be able to sense all of the conflicting emotions that had been radiating off of the redhead in waves since the battle at Rat's Nest, the reasons as to why Simmons felt that way were something Grif desperately wanted to know but wasn't sure when or how to ask about.
Grif felt oddly touched at the display of worry being thrown his way by Simmons, and his lips curved upwards in a slight smile as a result, "It's nothing." He reassured the human, inclining his head slightly in the direction of the slow-moving group that was getting farther away from them, "You should stay with your cousin, Simmons. I'm going to scout the area."
It wasn't exactly a lie. He was planning on scouting a rather specific area around the village at least, in order to confirm his suspicions about where they were. But, not telling the full truth of the matter to the nerd who was clearly just worried over everything at the moment made him feel a bit guilty.
That may have worked in the chubby man's favor though, because a skeptical look crossed over Simmons' features as he regarded Grif, "Uh-huh. And by "scout" do you mean get food?"
Grif chuckled, "You know me too well, Simmons." When the human looked as though he were about to argue against such an action, the Orc quickly shook his head, "I'll be fine. Just need to decompress a bit after all of that, you know?" He told the redhead, "I'll be back soon. I promise."
Simmons must have really been just as exhausted and worried as he was so very loudly broadcasting himself to be to Grif through their Linking Magic connection because, while he looked conflicted over Grif's idea, he merely bit his lip anxiously and cast a furtive glance back towards the others.
Grif felt horrible for having not been truthful about what he was doing, but he schooled his expression into a careless one and tried to bury his suspicions under layers of feigned calmness. Right now, even though it majorly sucked, the only thing he could really do for the lanky human was to try to not upset him further.
"All right." Simmons finally stated at length before turning back in the direction of the group. He paused, however, to look over his shoulder and pin the Orc with a pointed stare, "But just…hurry back soon, all right, fat-ass? You haven't had a proper reunion with Kai yet."
The smile that Grif gave at Simmons' obvious concern for his sibling was a genuine one, "I know, kiss-ass." He told him before adding softly, "And it seems like there's something you might need to get off your chest too, am I right?"
"I—I…!" There was an obvious spark of anxiety that came from Simmons then, and he couldn't quite meet Grif's eyes. He cast his green-eyed gaze to the ground and reluctantly nodded instead.
"It'll be okay, Simmons." Grif took a step closer to the pale-skinned man, fighting the urge to reach out again and touch his shoulder as he continued speaking in a reassuring tone, "We'll talk when you're ready, okay?"
Simmons marginally relaxed, nodding his head a tiny fraction in response. The tan-skinned man waited until Simmons tentatively began following the others once more before he let his smile falter and he stepped off the main road of the village with purposeful strides.
The Orc made his way to the thick forest on the outskirts of the settlement, glancing cautiously to and fro. It seemed that they hadn't been followed here directly from Rat's Nest. But, if his suspicions were right…
His frown deepened as he made his way through the brush, eventually stepping onto an already fading narrow path that he had traveled on once before during a mission.
Grif swallowed heavily, a lump in his throat as he retraced his steps through the dense foliage. The Orc mission camp had been right around here.
That's when he spotted what he was looking for just under a few carelessly strewn rocks that served as concealment to any ignorant passersby…
The Relic Communicator glowed to warm, brilliant light in his hands despite its dirt-covered appearance, a calm voice issuing forth from it as though Grif stumbling back onto this site had been completely anticipated.
"I take it you have something to report about our missing Guild friends, Agent?" Aiden Price asked.
Grif didn't bother saying a word in response, though he supposed that blowing up the communicator like he did was probably enough.
Author's Notes: I apologize if this chapter reads a bit rushed at parts as this chapter pretty much serves as an immediate follow-up to the events of the previous one. I have been feeling oddly lethargic the last couple of days, and I'm hoping I'm not coming down with something! *crosses fingers*
Only three more chapters to go before the ending of Volume I! :D The upcoming chapters will focus on everyone licking their wounds and more interactions, along with some reveals and turning points in the plot that will help to set the stage for what will be coming up in the second volume of this fic. :) I might just try to get the remaining chapters out as quickly as I can before going back to my other WIPs since I am so close to being done with Volume I, but don't worry! I will definitely still be updating all of them as soon as I can! :D
Thank you for keeping up with this rambling, odd story of mine. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year! :D