His grip was slipping, hailing rain above their heads making it slippery and wet, too much so to get a good hold on his hand as the man below him looked up, eyes knowing. Somewhere down there, from his feet onward, the young man could see them, paths of concrete easing up their legs, solid and immovable as their weight seemed to grow, multiplying with each second that wore by. Desperately, he tried to hold on, scrambling over slick skin, failing to grant the conduit even the slightest bit of leverage, made worse by the tendrils of stone that had since claimed the man's feet.
But he had to try, and try he did. Over and over again, he tried to pull himself up, doing the same with as much force as he could muster to lift the man, to bring from the edge of oblivion, the cold, black waters far below gaping wide, icy teeth primed like a maw. Gazing down at it, the conduit gritted his teeth, giving his everything to pull him up, but he couldn't.
He couldn't do this.
The weight of the growing stone was pulling back with force now, his arms and shoulder straining in a bid to hold him up, but his hands ached, knuckles bone white and his fingertips chaffed. His joints screamed as he tried it again, screaming as his shoulder twisted, feeling on the cusp of popping out of its socket.
But he couldn't stop. He had to...he had to try...he couldn't let him -
"Delsin..." Snapping his head back, he could hear his voice, strangely resigned, almost sounding relaxed despite the shit situation they'd landed into.
All because of him, all because he was too stupid to see what was right in front of him.
Biting his lip, he ignored his call, choosing instead to focus everything he had on pulling the two of them onto the ledge above, but even just holding on was because difficult, the conduit loosing a strained breath, his chest tight with stress and pain. He could feel his muscles crying out to be relaxed, cramping and twisting with agony to the point that they began to get numb. Somewhere below him, he could see it, the massive concrete boulder that had Eugene and Fetch, turning and shifting coldly as it floated up, guided by Augustine's hand from afar. It hovered meters away, pulsing with intense golden light from within.
His eyes widened, ears pricked to the sounds of their screams.
She was hurting them.
"Stop it! You're hurting them! Stop!" He shouted, flailing harder to see where they were, his eyes just making out the shape of it, too far out of reach but close enough where he could hear them, struggling desperately as his mind reeled at the thought of what might be happening to them.
All because he put them in danger.
"Delsin, listen." The man urged again, his eyes holding a greater resolve than they had before, but Delsin didn't want to look at them.
Not into the eyes of a man that seemed to accept that he may die here.
He couldn't handle that, seeing his only flesh and blood look like that. He couldn't accept that.
Yet still, as the crawling hands of stone overcame his knees, the man spoke, voice calm.
"Look at me. Delsin, look at me." He commanded, and the younger of them squeezed his eyes shut for a moment as he went slack, feeling his eyes water as he gave a shaking sigh. His hands were growing numb now, not that the concrete from before had helped, the conduit noting the residual pricks of pain that came as his hands budded with blood, fingers raw as they gripped the ledge.
He could feel his eyes on him, staring up expectantly at him. The young man opened his own, turning his head slowly at what he knew would be there.
His brother dying right before him.
"You've gotta let me go." Came his simple words, partnered by the sound, concrete covering his thighs now, and the man winced as his opposite hand was coated, golden light peering beneath, their time running short with a cruel hand that Delsin didn't want to mind.
No, no, no, no. How could he ask him something like that? How could he?
"No! No, I can do this! I can do this, I can do this!" He could, he just had to try harder, he just had to -
"We can't let this stuff get to you, too. We...I can't let that happen." There was a silence, Delsin's eyes widening as more of came, pulling in the man's stomach, ascending at a pace that outmatched his own. Around him, their silence was broken by them, their cries piercing his ears. By now, his eyes watered, both from pain and anguish as reality began to set in.
This was all his fault.
"I am so proud of you - " His brother began to speak, Reggie's voice soft over the pouring rain, but Delsin didn't want to hear it, cutting him off.
"Shut-up. Don't say that, don't - don't talk like that!" He screamed back, gritting his teeth at the growing numbness of his shoulder, and he knew immediately that he'd definitely torn a muscle or two, but that didn't matter to him right now.
What could he do? Why was this happening? Reggie...Eugene...Fetch...they'd never done anything to her. They didn't do anything! This was...because of him.
He'd put them in danger, he was the cause of this, he was -
His head snapped up.
Wait.
Wait, he was the cause of this, right? This was...this was because of...him. Looking down at Reggie, the man's body was nearly covered now, his chest barely visible beneath what would soon be his coffin. Looking just above the ledge, Eugene and Fetch's cocoon waited. Within, their screams had devolved into sobs, his intense hearing picking it up over the solemn patters of rain on his skin.
In the back of his mind, he knew that what he was about to do was stupid, suicide, even. It may not even work, but what other choice did he have?
They didn't deserve this.
He did.
Giving his brother one last look, cast away his doubt.
At the very least, he could try. What did he have to lose?
"I'll go with you!" He shouted as loud as he could over the rain, hoping against hope that she could hear him, yet still, the concrete seemed to move, snaking up his brother's neck, unhindered. Reggie was at a loss for words, his eyes widening, mouth preparing to retort when her voice came, cold, echoing out to them.
"Oh? What was that? I'm afraid I may not have heard you correctly." He nearly choked on his words as Reggie cried out, his mouth becoming covered with the grey crawl. His heart hammered in his chest as he turned back, screaming out as loudly as he could again, throat scratching terribly.
"I said I'll come with you! I'll do whatever you want, just please stop hurting them. Please!" Swallowing his pride, there was a moment that felt like forever, the young man unable to look down as Reggie's hand gripped his, squeezing tightly as the pain overcame him, and yet here he was, helpless.
Completely and utterly helpless.
Then, in a breath, the concrete...stopped. Just short of Delsin's hand. Looking out into the sky, unable to find Augustine, her voice came again, cutting through the air.
"Ah, I thought you said that." Uttered to herself, though Delsin couldn't hear her, not from that distance, and he didn't care to. It had stopped, and his breath hitched, watching as it began to recede. Something akin to relief flooded him as Reggie took a startled breath, overjoyed to see his brother breathing...alive. Despite the lost feeling in his shoulder, there was the occasional pulse of pain that shot down them, but his elation overrode it, finding it a little easier to pull the two of them up onto the ledge, though great effort was still needed. Reggie was silent as Delsin helped him up, the younger of the two, holding onto his as the older man tried to collect himself.
Beyond them, the shell holding the other two conduits, Eugene and Fetch began to fragment, and as it did so, Delsin could see Augustine in the distance, coming closer.
But his attention was called down, Reggie lying in his arms, his face strange.
What was wrong.
"Delsin...Delsin, what did you do? Why would you - " The conduit cut him off, his words brief as the concrete shell felt away, and his eyes were fixed on them. He almost couldn't breathe at the sight of it, their bodies covered with blood as they were dropped to the ground without care, shards of concrete piercing their delicate flesh. His mouth felt dry, expression lost to shock as they laid there, motionless.
No.
No, this couldn't be happening, it -
"They're alive. Just unconscious." Came a familiar voice, Augustine now leagues closer to him, eased along on a floating, concrete platform before she landed before him. Regarding the two of them, Delsin his anger grow far more than what he felt his self-control could manage.
"You fucking bitch! Why would you do that? They never did anything to you!" His heart hammered, burning hot with fury as she laughed.
This was funny to her. She was...she was getting off on this.
She was fucking sick.
Waving away the accusation, she rolled her eyes.
"Oh, come now. You can't honestly believe that's the worst I could do. Just be grateful I didn't kill them. Besides, I can at least honor our little agreement, that is, if you could remind me." She purred, stepping forward and kneeling down to face him, thumbing his chin as she waited for him to respond. Delsin could feel it again, Reggie's eyes burrowing beneath his skin, waiting on bated breath to hear what he would say. He knew he would want him to run away, to take back what he'd said and get off, running back to the streets of Seattle without him.
He wanted him to sacrifice him.
But that wasn't going to happen.
Not today...never again.
With as much as Reggie had sacrificed for him, had given thanklessly...this was the least that he could do. Even...even if he hated him for this, he at least gave them a fighting chance. Yeah, he'd become the martyr, sure, but he didn't want to think of it like that.
He was just paying his back, that's all.
He owed him that much.
"I'll go with you. Back to Curden Cay. Do whatever you want to me, but just...just leave them out of this." Thinking on it, something else occurred to him.
The tribe.
Quickly, he spoke again.
"And the Akomish! You have to remove the concrete from every person you hurt and agree that you'll leave all of them out of your bullshit. After that..." Sighing, he tried to ignore Reggie's raspy protests, eyes hardened and resolved.
There was no going back now.
"...you can have me. But these guys are off limits." He finished, staring deep into her dark brown eyes with wavering. The woman seemed ponderous, still as she returned the look, considering his proposition. Then, with a grunt of approval, she grinned.
"Those terms are acceptable." Around them, just as soon as she agreed to it, swarms of DUP descended upon them, akin to hapless wasps as they separated Delsin and Reggie, the conduit shouting out at them with dismay.
"Hey, be careful with him! Watch what you're doing!" Turning to where Augustine had walked, he yelled to her, frantic and panicked as both Eugene and Fetch were picked up as well, carted off on helicopters, out of his view.
"What are you doing! I thought you said you wouldn't - " He was cut off this time, the woman rolling her eyes as she regarded him dully.
"And how else would you suggest they get down from the tower, hm? They aren't exactly in any condition to walk, are they?" She answered, going to turn away from him once more when he shouted again, still in a panic.
"Then where are you taking them?!" He demanded, struggling against the hold of a few soldiers, fighting to keep her in his sights.
He had to know they were going to be okay. If she was just going to dump them off somewhere, then all of this...all of this would have been for nothing. If they just died anyway...
No. Delsin didn't even want to think it, imagine anything like that happening. It made him sick.
But Augustine didn't look bothered, responding in flat tone.
"The place where you would take anyone else when they're hurt. The hospital. We'll just log their injuries as "Bio-terrorist Related: Unspecified"; make things simple for the both of us. They'll live." Came her simple answer, and she turned away, but Delsin still felt terrified.
Looking behind him, he could see them, all torn up and rough, especially Reggie, and though he hadn't paid attention to it before, his heart thrummed dangerously at the sight of it.
His legs.
Twisted and bent at such an extreme angle that part of him wanted to vomit at the sight of him, but it was replaced by a sudden fear. Reggie seemed to think the same as he was loaded on, somehow still conscious as fought back weakly against the soldiers, and it was with a start that he realized he'd been shouting his name, raspy and tired over the rain.
That fear bubbled in him, bubbled in him as he realized something horrible.
He might never see them again, never see the tribe, either.
He would be carted away somewhere...somewhere he couldn't find them. The thought made something squeeze, like a snaking shifting in his gut. Like a terrible loneliness he couldn't fight...yet...Delsin smiled.
He wouldn't have done anything differently. Not a fucking thing.
He flinched as concrete began to crawl over him, melting like an iron curtain over his legs and body. The conduit tried his best to calm himself, to not move for fear that the concrete would cut into him, the material distinctly unkind and merciless in its march. But it hurt, feeling the world shut out, his brother's weak shouts dying out as the doors to the helicopters were closed, and they took off, the others blurring off into the distance. He tried to watch them, turning his head as far as it would go before he felt it come up to his neck.
He didn't have much time now.
Augustine, however, came into view, a sort of smug smiled that Delsin hated to see, as if she'd won something, then he doubled back.
In a way, he guessed she had.
For a long moment, the woman didn't say anything, merely peering into his eyes before her lips moved, just as the stone tomb consumed him.
"Let's get you home."
Then the world went black and silent.