Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

It's been a week, Deadlock hadn't messaged Fade for a week.

She's going insane, all that ever happens to her lately is being poked by Viper. The woman was right about KA/YO's knife being able to suppress Hanahaki, which gave her all the incentives to keep prodding and prying her body. The woman was unphased by the disease, hell, she's probably elated to try to research it. She gets visited by Skye every now and then, which was nice. But they have nothing to talk about, the Australian is walking around her with eggshells. They can't talk about hiking because frankly, Deadlock can't right now. Can't talk about Fade because "It's prohibited" and "might disrupt" the research. Can't even talk about Yoru or talk to him, he's probably off doing god knows what. Sage... she comes regularly but she doesn't ever converse. She's far too clinical. Brimstone is doing his commander duties, he hasn't visited just once even to check if she's still even alive (although Viper most likely updates him with her situation). KA/YO doesn't visit at all, he just leaves his knives.

She can't help but feel bitter about her own situation, the window of opportunity of confessing to Fade has been long gone. If she confesses now she'll probably reject her- They've drifted too far apart from each other. If Viper doesn't find a cure from all the research she might as well die, to be revived by Sage. The cycle would repeat itself until they find a cure or when she finally begs for permanent death.

Yet she persists, she'll wait until she sees how the confession goes

"This will be the last experiment conducted on you and the disease, I gathered enough data to confidently say I found a cure."

Fina- fucking -ly

"The disease is more akin to a parasite instead of a virus, rather than being something similar to influenza Hanahaki is a living organism that rapidly seeds and takes roots into your lungs as it is the perfect environment to grow the radiant seeds-"

She could care less about Viper droning on right now. God what would she even say to Fade? "Heyyy sorry I wasnt talking to you hahaha Brimstone and Viper altered my protocol issued tablet so I cant do so. Btw i like you I could die if you dont like me back." No fucking shot, it's hopeless. She feels more isolated than she had been back when she first came to the protocol.

"-And don't act like I can't tell you're not listening, I'll repeat this once and only once: Would you like to try to confess first or would you like to try my cure?"

"Uhm.. I'll confess?"

"Alright, if that method does not effectively cure you, mentally prepare yourself to forcibly inhale my concocted cure-poison for the radiant seeds in your lungs. Don't worry, it won't kill you like my regular poison. You just have to endure the oxygen deprivation for a bit."

Wait, what?

She's greeted with a strange welcome once she came back; her fellow agents are acting weird towards her. Much different from their demeanor compared to the get well soon gifts she receives. Deadlock finds no reason for them to be acting in such a way, the quarantine might have been a scare but it's been lifted the day prior.

No one would look her in the eye, not even Clove. Fade's nowhere to be seen either, she could ask the other agents if they've seen her. The room is far too tense for her to make an attempt on cutting through the silence.

The only person willing to talk to her is Neon- Who is currently giving her a dirty look with crossed arms. How can someone be so small be this intimidating? Her current attitude towards her deviates from her usual personality, what has she done for all these agents to be acting like this.

"Hoy ano tinitignan tignan mo diyan, torpeng walis tambo What do you want?" Deadlock has no idea what she even said from the former part of the sentence, but judging from her tone its not good.

"Have you seen Fade?" Deadlock scratches her own nape, she has no idea how she got on Neon's bad side but she's trying not to provoke her.

It's like when a dog is avoiding eye contact with another dog that ranks higher than him, as Skye explained it to her once.

"Deputa..." Neon mutters under her breath, "She's been in her room the whole week, what makes you think she wants to see you of all people?"

"What?! What do you mean?" The noise attracts a crowd, they're trying to be discreet but Deadlock can see them listening in from her peripheral vision.

"You didn't know? What were you doing this past week? We know you woke up at some point, dude. You left her on read! She's freaking out and its all your fault."

Left her on read? "Wait- Neon let's calm down I can explain-"

"Ulol! Kuwento mo sa pagong! Ate Fade has been suffering all this time because of you, you said you were gonna message her back. She thinks you hate her and we can't convince her otherwise."

The thought of Fade resenting her before she even gets the chance to confess is nauseating.

A violent itching sensation hikes up her throat, this one far worse than the previous coughing fits she had. She coughs the first flower with ease, which stuns the whole room. The second one that she hacks out came faster than usual, the interval between coughing out flowers used to be longer. The third one gets stuck on her throat, the stem of this rose was unusually long. The thorns ripped through her throat. She coughs and cough with no rest, suprisingly there's also phlegm coming out of her lungs. It coats the flowers she coughed up, along the blood that she drew when these flowers scratched through her throat.

Neon's berating had already ceased from the first flower's appearance. She's standing still, far too stunned to move and she staring at her bloodstained jacket.

"Um... what the feck? Is that why we went to quarantine?" Clove's voice aborts the pregnant pause.

"No way... Jett you saw that right? It's the disease that you showed me in that novel you used to read!" Neon calls out to Jett.

"I need to get to Fade... Please" Deadlock's putting through a tough facade. A small prideful part of herself regrets bragging that she is more like KAY/O than the other agents. She feels particularly vulnerable, she doesn't care that she's putting out a pathetic display right now.

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She's in deep shit, even if she gets cured by Viper she'll never get to face Fade with dignity