"Root?"
"Root."
Shaw's was more of a true questioning whereas Asher's had been one of genuine relief as the honey badger snaked like a more deadly cat around Root's ankle once she and Shaw had stumbled back to their feet.
"Root." Shaw's daemon hummed again in soft awe. Then he'd turned his attention towards Coda letting Shaw handle the messy talk of their escape and subsequent hiding out in between tracking Samaritan's remaining agents.
Ash was skittish of course even as Coda gave a ginger play bowed greeting his shortened tail a blur behind him in his relieved joy. The terrier could tell his badgered counterpart wanted some semblance of closeness. The sighs startled him with the obviousness of it clear in the badger's eyes as they studied him whilst their humans talked.
It is when they get to the part about the Samaritan tests that Coda notices just how far Root and Shaw have gotten from them before the tingling of their remaining bond strain sets in calling the two daemons to follow.
"They nearly severed us. Like Control had with you. Only it was worse. So much worse." Asher confesses at the same time Shaw lets slip the reason behind such extreme torment on Samaritan's part. "So many times." The badger whispered in a show of guilt far more shocking than hearing about the over seven thousand times he and Shaw had killed not just their friends but others under Samaritan's mind-twisting control.
But the worst part of it all was the sight of Shaw with Asher now resting crossed her shoulders and her hand visibly trembling pointing the loaded gun straight at her own daemon's head as she spoke about not trusting her own judgment on what was real and what was a further trick of Samaritan's plain to gain the Machine's location.
The hacker already knew that image would be hunting her dreams same as the echoing clang of that closing library door or the lingering warmth of Shaw's "last kiss" frequented her nightmares.
"Alright then."
Coda rather than Root agrees padding over to sit square in front of the gun-wielding pair.
"What the heck are you doing?" Shaw demands over the growing sounds of her daemon's upset at the change in tacts.
"Playing it your way, Sweetie." Root answers pulling out a gun of her own from the waistband of her pants.
She hates the way she enjoys the sounds of Asher hissing even louder when she racks a round into the chamber or the way the daemon snarls in clearer warning when she raises her hand to point the armed weapon at the yet-to-move terrier seated between them. a far better decoration of her intention than nearly pointing the thing at her own head.
"Try for right at the back of our head. I want them to be the last thing we ever see." Coda instructs without looking away from the visibly shaking pair still holding the gun to their own temple.
"They've never done this before." Asher was saying against Shaw's ear. "Not in any of the sims."
"It's just another trick." Shaw argues but even she seems unsure of her own diagnosis. "Just Samaritan digging into our head again. Exploiting our proven weaknesses."
"Not a trick." Coda sighs inching closer. Root hates the way her daemon's tail wags a little at the confirmation of Shaw seeing them threatening to end themselves as a weakness on top of Shaw's confession about how instead of killing them during Samaritan's mind games she'd killed herself and Asher instead. "Just a promise." He explains with one of his softer puppy dog smiles as Shaw holds his gaze.
"Code's right." Root chimes in her voice saddened but clear. "You've made it clear you can't live with us; well, we can't live without you both. So, if you die so do we."
"No."
The sound of Asher's voice so clear and terrified as he launched himself from Shaw's shoulder toward Root was another sound the hacker thought she'd never be able to forget as she instinctively reached out to catch the flying honey badger at the same time Shaw was dropping too clinging with equal desperation onto Coda.
"The hell you're leaving us again." The hissing honey badger growls his clawed paws digging hard into Root's shoulders as he rubs his head under her chin. "Never. Ever. No."
"Subtle Ash. Very subtle." Shaw snickers making Root's knees weak as she cradles Coda closer against her chest. The terrier whimpered his own agreement as Shaw's fingers rubbed so softly against the mangled stub Control had left of his right ear in the attacking torment they'd suffered for information on the Machine.
"Shut up." Her daemon huffs in answer.
"Still say this is just another simulation," Shaw mumbles without loosening her hold on a daemon that wasn't hers. "Maybe" Ash agrees now curled tightly across Root's shoulders as the hacker offers a guiding hand towards the badger's human counterpart. "but it also shows their getting desperate to break us pulling a stunt like this."
"Stop talking like this. You're giving us a stomachache." Coda whimpers from Shaw's arms.
"More like heart failure but close enough." Root mumbles in clarification but then her head dips in that telling way Shaw had noticed whoever 'Robo-God' wanted a word and her favored hobbies expression brightened only a little at whatever suggestion 'the Machine' had given. "she was just saying that if you'd like they just had the grand opening of a new fusion place. Wanna try it out? See if it's worth the Shaw mark of approval?"
Of course, Root would notice Shaw's appraisal.
"If we go, will you order something more than leaves or apples?"
Root was still in awe of the way Shaw allowed Asher to talk for them when before she'd always quiet her daemon with a glare if he dared show anything of their true feelings for Root's or anyone else's wellbeing.
"Of course, Sweetie."
Shaw rolled her eyes at the throwaway answer but Root could care less as Asher settled into a better braced curling around the back of her neck and Shaw's daemon-free hand clasps with the hand the hacker was holding in offering.