As always, thank you so, so much for reading and for leaving a review. It means a lot that people are seeing this project and enjoying it. And thanks to Minaethiel and BrambleStar14 for beta reading for me. I appreciate you.
And now, the moment(s) you've all been waiting for...
Extreme Weather Warning
Written by TunelessLyric
"What I've been through
Felt like it wasn't with you
Because you're not who I remember
You're gone forever"
-From Ashes to New, 'Gone Forever'
She found herself holding her breath as she stepped through the front entrance. Phoenix was standing in a loose half circle. Their bodies were painted like the gathering clouds in the changing colours of the sunset, just beginning to turn yellow and orange with the long summer days they were still enjoying.
"Wow," said Lucas.
After a long debate over the slashes of silver from collarbone to hip, she had painted the entire suit a matte black. Over that background of night she had splashed ice blue paint until it had become a swirling sky of pale lights. Or, as seven sets of eyes took it all in, heavy snow blowing over her body.
Mike nodded. "Wow is right."
Harper held up a finger, twirling it to ask for a spin. She turned in place, letting them see the way the paint splatters mimicked sharp wind tossing around flakes of all sizes. The only evidence there had once been mortal wounds rent through the metal were thick concentrations of the falling, blowing, drifting snow.
"I was close," announced Aaron, hands shooting up around his head in triumph. "Swirling wind."
Phil shook his head. "I'd say Mike and Shaw were closer."
"Oh, suck-up," Aaron teased. He dug into a pouch at his belt, handing out what he owed the winners.
"All right, you lot," Harper said as attention began wandering towards bragging and sore losing, "we're not going far tonight, but I'd like to get there before Geist starts whining about missing out on his beauty sleep."
Geist offered no comment as he settled his own bet.
Once business was finished, Phoenix set off down the well-used path. They headed for the pines huddled closely together about a klick from the base, where they usually had these survival outings.
They knew the shape of the shadows as they stretched across the uneven ground. They knew the muted sounds of their boots in the brown needles carpeting the forest floor. For the first time, Hannah felt at home in these trees. On these worn trails. With these men.
With a signal from Harper, Geist split off from the main group to find a good spot to make camp for the night. It all felt automatic, their heads swivelling as they walked through the fading light. This was for fun, but the soldier's instincts remained. Aaron laughed when Jason glanced back and their lines of sight crossed.
"Looking for something?" he asked.
"I could ask you the same," Shaw shot back. "You're the one looking my way."
Aaron's head rolled fractionally. Just enough that the entire team knew he had rolled his eyes. "That's right, nobody look at each other. How dare I. So sorry, Shaw, I'm a terrible person for accidentally glancing your way."
Jason scoffed. "Look all you want, Paul. But you really should know that I'm not interested, mate."
Hand on his chest, Aaron stopped and sniffled.
"If you two don't cut it out, I swear I'm going to turn us all around and cancel the party," Phil cut in. He turned to walk backward a few steps so he could pin the offenders with a hard look despite the blank visor. "Sorry, Hannah, you want to send these two back to base?"
She was a little taken aback that he sounded so serious. With a glance at Aaron, she almost chuckled. The redhead looked rather penitent, hands clasped in front of his waist. No doubt he had an innocent expression plastered across his face. He was harmless.
Switching to look at Jason, she hesitated. The entire team halted in the beat of silence. Every helmet was pointed in her direction. She suddenly was aware that she had been accepted into their midst, saved from death, out of the goodness in their twisted hearts. Yet…
A savage heat rolled off Jason as they stood there, staring at each other. Hannah refused to reach for the welcome chill in her heart to shield herself from it. Refused to rise to his unspoken challenge, issued all the same.
"It's cool," she finally said, the words coming out smoothly despite the warning and threat and friction hanging heavily in the air.
Phil nodded and turned back in the direction Geist had disappeared into. Aaron, Mike and Lucas followed suit without comment. Harper offered Hannah a final look before hooking his thumbs back into his belt and walking as if he was about to burst out whistling. "Come along, Jay, Bliz."
Hannah stayed right where she was, watching Jason. She still felt the intense dislike between them. Stubbornly objected to breaking the contact first. Hands fisted at his sides, Jason finally turned away to trot until he caught up to the others.
Then she followed, content to bring up the rear.
She stayed back there by herself until the trees thinned out into a narrow clearing. Aaron and Harper had already dumped their packs on the ground, but Geist was trimming limbs from dry branches for kindling. Each Phoenix set about their individual camp-making activities. In about twenty minutes, they had a fire going courtesy of Jason's firewood gathering and Aaron's gleeful pyromania.
Night had fully descended, dark with the clouds hiding away the stars, by the time Hannah settled herself into the circle around the campfire between Geist and Mike. Something about their even and calming quiet felt good after the heated moment with Shaw.
"Since we didn't get to go to a bar or dance floor," said Harper, rooting through his pack, "the rest of us came prepared."
He handed out cans of beer. Phil and a couple others had brought canteens of whisky or vodka, or some other liquor. Mike passed around enamel mugs so nobody, as Aaron put it, "got each other's cooties".
Hannah wrapped her hands around her mug of whisky, sipping it slowly. It was tricky not to stare into the bright heart of the flames before her, wondering how she had gotten here. It was better not to consider it. To consider the incredibly strange friendships she felt blooming around her. Consider how comfortable it was to watch Geist light a cigarette and lean back against a tree.
"Everyone got their hydration?" asked Harper, lifting his own. "I just want to thank Blizzard for joining us tonight. Here's to another successful rebirth."
Aaron, Mike, Phil, Lucas, Geist and Jason raised their own drinks in her direction before everyone took a long swallow.
"And that's about it, talk amongst yourselves," Harper finished.
Talk they did. It wandered in and out of topics. Phil told a story about one of Phoenix's first ops back when they still belonged to ONI. When they had all finished spitting on the names of Crane, Sharpe and Milo, Lucas hopped in to tell about the time they had first toasted a new member. His voice was slow for once. Wistful. They drank to the memory of Isaac Harper, who Hannah had never heard of.
Picking the mood back up was Harper himself. There was a lengthy and often tangential tale about an Elite the size of a Warthog that ended in a very unexpected anticlimax. On and on it went, everyone chipping in with a story.
Which meant that at the end, it was Hannah's turn.
"I don't have any stories you guys might like," she said, shaking her head. "I don't have anything funny or exciting."
Not when her life had been an action-horror since she had enlisted. Talking about killing aliens for a living wasn't exactly the thrilling adventure that lended itself to fireside storytelling. It was death and destruction and fear and anger. Nothing to be laughed at.
"There has to be something," pressed Lucas.
"You've seen my file." Her hands spread wide. "Nothing left to say about it."
Aaron leaned forward, using Geist's knee for leverage. "Can't expect us to believe nothing ever happened ever when you were on leave or in school."
High school brushed uncomfortably close to her parents. God, they still thought she was dead. It was one of her common nightmares, the two of them seeing her face on a news release about the Insurrection. What it would do to her mother to find out that way. How angry her father would be.
Hannah's head shook again. "I don't want to talk about my childhood. Covvies glassed the planet when I was five. Dad's job meant we were safely evacuated. The end."
"Shore leave then," prompted Harper. "Bunch of Helljumpers on a day off, gotta wonder what that might be like."
Mike nodded. "Must have been something to see. What was it like for you lot?"
"All right, you want to hear a story about me on leave?" she asked, voice temperature plummeting. "You'll have a story about it. Hope you all love it."
"Hannah, you don't—" tried Phil.
"No," she snapped. "You asked, I'm telling. Shut up and listen."
The fire crackled, throwing sparks into the sky. Nothing moved, not even the breeze that had been playing through the trees a second ago. It held still, waiting for her to breathe. To say it was okay to resume blowing.
"It was a while ago," she began, staring stonily into the fire again, seeing the lights and the crowd instead. "We'd been off for a couple of weeks. Spent the first several days in the hospital. Got stomped on by a Brute on the mission we'd just come from and needed work done on my wrist. Pascal was in with me, he'd taken a bad slash to the thigh and was on bedrest. After we were released, Theresa wanted to do some shopping, just us girls. So we blew a day on that. Don't even remember what we bought."
But she remembered the ringing laughter as they joked, walking the streets and peering into windows. The other woman had been tall and willowy. Dark eyes with dark hair always kept shoulder length. Hannah's opposite in so many ways, but she had been the sister Hannah had never had growing up. Best first real day off of the trip.
"We did this thing where everyone spent a day with one other person on the team. Pascal said our stay in the hospital together hadn't counted, so we went to a zoo, then a museum, then a gallery. He liked that sort of geeky shit. Always insisted on getting a guided tour so he could learn." It felt like a comment that deserved an eye roll. Just couldn't bring herself to do it. They'd gone on their final tour together. It was a dumb thought that brought the grief rushing back.
Hannah had to take a sip of her whisky. She swished it around her mouth, savouring the burning before swallowing down the lump in her throat.
The other Phoenixes sat very still, eyes riveted to her. Silent.
Taking a breath, she continued, "White and I did picnics in whatever parks we could find. He knew all of these legends from centuries ago. Might have missed his calling as a teacher or something. Always knew what to say to make you feel better about something. We didn't really talk much, but we got by on the quiet. Trusted each other completely. Needed to. We were in charge of the others."
It was the first time she had referenced her status with Orange. The first time she confessed to that particular sin.
"And Dominic…" Hannah shrugged. "We never went into our days together with a plan. It was always a surprise, whatever happened. Sometimes it was a Grifball game, or catching a movie, or staying in and reading and gaming together. Being with him was just easy. All the time. Dom was great like that. Just a wink and a smile and you were laughing along. Agreeing to whatever he wanted."
Jason shifted, drawing her eyes up to watch. She suspected she knew which direction his suspicions had gone. White had enforced rules about teammates. She and Dom had looked down that road once. Spent a week trying things out with one another. Nothing more. He had been her best friend for years. Died her best friend. The only thing she regretted about that was that she hadn't fought for him harder.
Taking another long drink, Hannah looked away from Shaw. She couldn't see him right now. Not if she was actually going to ever tell this story.
"That's who I lost that day. Why I had to do that to Mars. But what I want to tell you doesn't really have much to do with that. They're not really part of my story tonight. They're just the background to it. That's what my time off had been like. This was the last night before we left again. White had this rule where we all went to bed early our last night. Wanted us to rest up in a real bed and face the next assignment feeling fresh and ready.
"That last night, we had been staying in New Alexandria. Reach. Somehow Dom and Pascal managed to talk our way into this insanely popular nightclub. The whole staff were pretty chill about letting UNSC in over anyone else. ODSTs were a privileged group to begin with. You say you're a Helljumper and you'd be surprised what kind of doors open without questions. So they got us into Errera."
"Steele," said Jason, his expression unreadable. There was fire in that single syllable. Warning.
"White spent the night at the bar," she went on, her own voice crisp and frosty in response. Ignoring him with her words and eyes, but answering him in tone. "The others quickly found some complete strangers to dance with. Quiet corner to make out in. The usual. I was doing my own thing that night and that was fine."
The sounds and sights came back to her in an instant. People packed close together. Sweating on each other. Loud music. The cold glass in her hand. Taste of scotch imported from Earth.
"Dom found me as it got close to time to leave. I went to the bar to collect White. He was getting close to retirement and we all knew it. Drank hard some nights. Another year or so. That's all he had left in him."
He'd been close. So damn close to a healthy pension and a suburban home. Gone now. That potential. Never coming back. He'd almost made it.
"Was he grooming you for command?" asked Phil.
Hannah took another sip. She nodded. "Yeah. He'd passed a lot of responsibility over to me by the end. He still led briefings, got our orders from above, that shit. But I did pretty much everything else. He encouraged me to do more." She shrugged. "Doesn't matter anymore. Went to the bar to get him that night. Did most nights."
"Hannah," growled Jason. His knuckles were white around his beer. If he squeezed any tighter, he was going to fold the can and make a hell of a mess.
Ice blue eyes slid off of Phil to lock onto Shaw. Staring into him, she went on, "Got talking to the bartender. Nice guy. Said he loved working there. Said he always liked seeing UNSC there. He loved working with his brother."
Shaw was on his feet in an instant, can clenched in a fist and the aluminum buckling with a crack. "Stop talking right now."
Mike held up a hand, glancing between Shaw and Hannah. Harper gave him a swift shake of his head. Don't interrupt.
Hannah swirled the dark amber liquid in her mug, eyes still on the shaking Shaw. "The bartender's brother, he said, could pick ODSTs out easily. 'Out of a darkened hallway', I think his exact words were."
Jason's free hand dropped to his waist where one of his knives usually sat. It wasn't there, but that wouldn't stop him for long. He glared over the flames at her, the promise of violence flickering like a storm cloud over his face.
An answering storm surged through Hannah. Freezing rain lashed her insides. It ran through her veins. It iced through her spine. She let the wind, the same one that had brushed through the pine trees, the one now raging through her, show in her expression as it twisted.
"He asked me if I wanted a song played. I had a few minutes before we really did have to leave, so I made my request. What do you know, the DJ puts it on next. Gives me a formal shout-out and everything. So I danced to it." Suddenly remembering that there were six others present, she blinked, lazily breaking Jason's furious stare. Looking around at their teammates, she asked, "Think I went to talk to the DJ on my way out?"
Harper, looking some combination of thoroughly amused and thoroughly fascinated, didn't react. Neither did Geist. But Lucas nodded once. Aaron was staring at her, mouth open. Mike and Phil were both sitting forward, bodies tight and ready to stand if they had to.
"If you—"
Hannah was on her feet, too quickly to have consciously moved, before Shaw could finish. "I thanked you for playing my fucking song, you ass." It came out as a hiss. Her own warning as she finally acknowledged his from before. "I tipped Mark. I looked for you both when we got back months later, but you were both gone already."
She laughed coldly, feeling goosebumps rise along her skin.
Jason flinched, the can completely crumpling in his grip. Foam and liquid ran down his arm, hissing as it dripped into the fire and evaporated. Gone in less than an instant.
"You want to hear the best part?" she asked.
The rest of Phoenix was gone again. So distant she didn't think they could even hear her anymore. Might as well have been on a different planet. The world was just her and Jason and the flames rising between them as her storm fanned them higher.
Eyes flashing in the firelight, he shook his head savagely. "Don't." His voice was a snarl. A twisted reflection, deeper and darker, of the young man who had shaken her hand and introduced himself. A different person. She saw it even if he didn't. The Jason Shaw she had known was dead. Had died the moment Harper had found him.
"I wanted to stay. To be with you."
Mike and Geist had to scramble out of the way as Hunter finally threw himself at her. She had seen it coming from the moment he had stood and was already braced against the weight of him.
He swung the sharp edge of the aluminum can for her unprotected face. Her hand swept out, knocking the improvised weapon aside. The blows landed quickly, traded like insults. Her scarred side. His gut. Her knee. His armpit. Back and forth, knuckles rattling and dull pain exploding in their wake.
She hooked her foot through his legs and yanked. He grabbed her shoulder as he felt. They rolled through the dark cold, away from the fire. The clouds overhead broke at last, spilling icy rain down on their heads as they rolled over again, colliding with a solid tree trunk. Hunter was above her, both hands on her shoulders to lift her up and slam her head into the ground. Lightning flashed behind her eyes at the impact. Thunder cracked through her chest in answer.
Her fist connected with the side of his head. Taking advantage of that split second of disorientation, she shoved his weight to the side, rolling them away from the tree so she could get better positioning. Straddling him, Blizzard clamped a hand around each of his wrists and pinned them to the forest floor. Rain soaked into her hair, streaming down her face. Dripped down into his.
"I had so much freedom," she spat to his face like it was poison. "I could have gotten away with staying out until your shift was done. I should have taken you back to my place that night."
Hunter let out a wordless growl, deep in his chest, that rumbled through her legs. He struggled beneath her.
"Don't know why I keep saying 'you' like that. You're not him. You're not my Jason Shaw. He's dead." Her thumbs dug into his wrists, pressing hard between the plating and padding of his glove.
His head jerked upward. She pulled hers up reflexively, saving herself from the worst of the blow. Still, the impact rattled her teeth, putting them through her lip. Copper burst over her tongue. Sharp pain hit her mouth a heartbeat later.
"Oh, stop," she chided, words already muffled through the swelling starting in her lip. "I'll let you up when you do."
Rain hissed down around them. They could barely make each other out through the wet night. She blocked out all light from the fire as they sprawled there in the pine needles.
Hunter let out a frustrated noise, sagging against the ground. She rolled away, coming up smoothly to her feet. Turning her back on the long figure stretched out and glaring up at the sky, she stalked back to the circle of Phoenixes. She bowed low to them all.
"Guess you know how his half of the story ends," said Hannah, sitting back down. Her mug lay at her feet where she had dropped it. Picking it up, she laid its cold side to her stinging lip.
The rain shower had already begun to ease off. Just a quick sprinkle. The hint of a true storm that could tear trees up by their roots and rip roofs off buildings.
"Had no idea," Phil said slowly, the first of the others to break the silence.
The fire had burned lower thanks to the onslaught of the rain, but it still went strong. Across the flames from her, Harper was watching intently. Head cocked, hand on the knife that, unlike Hunter's, was in its customary place. "That's interesting," he murmured as Shaw peeled himself from the ground and flopped down next to the team leader.
Hannah lifted her empty mug as a sort of toast. "I'm not really much of a story-teller." It wasn't an apology for provoking and beating Hunter into the dirt. But it was a sideways approach to one.
Harper waved it away. "Long as that's sorted."
Hunter grunted, rubbing the side of his head.
She shrugged. "Out of my system," she promised. Her gaze switched to Hunter. "Won't happen again."
Lucas whistled.
"About time someone put Shaw in his place." Aaron nodded. "I like you, Hannah. I hope you stick around after this."
She shook her head. "Far as I can figure it, I owe you all a debt. I'm here until it's paid off."
The rain quit altogether. Flickers of blue and purple were visible through the clouds as they broke apart.
"We're glad to have you," said Geist.
"Sure keeps life interesting," added Mike, finishing his drink and relaxing at last.
As the adrenaline left her, Hannah yawned. It was getting late. None of the others were subdued as they drained their drinks, the usual ribbing flying between teammates. Particularly aimed away from Shaw after the humiliation he had received, but it was there all the same.
It wasn't much longer before the circle dissolved so each member of Fireteam Phoenix could crawl into bedrolls and sleep until their turn to keep watch.
For once, Hannah's nightmares didn't feature sparkling blue eyes.
