Work Text:
The first time Ai saw Revenant die still haunts the backs of their eyelids. Though they don’t dream much, it still burns itself into their nightmares. It crashes into the recesses of their brain in waves, unrelenting, even when all they do that day is stare at one of the walls of the dropship. And seriously, those walls are exceedingly interesting, it just can’t keep their thoughts at bay.
His body had gone slack first, then his head jerked down with the shock of hitting the ground shortly after, followed by the light of his eyes fading away, slowly, too slowly.
The second’s delay was what wretched their heart the most.
Ai had been rushing to pull Bloodhound to their feet, receiving fire and dealing it blindly at the same time. A bright orange flash, and that was what brought them down. There was no time to think, just survive the round with everyone intact. Sliding in through the door from a sprint and frantically emptying their magazine through the singeing brightness, they grabbed the tracker by the scruff and twisted themselves to ram shoulder first behind a large crate.
Flicking the syringe into the right position, they brought the tip down deftly to Bloodhound’s chest, holding as still as possible to control the injection. They could hear the enemy using syringes too, but rushing the injection could be lethal. Ai grit their teeth. It was likely that, whoever it was, would be using at most three... no, two, syringes. They’d missed all their shots, so the enemy was probably feeling confident now. Ten seconds. Scant, but enough. Bloodhound was up now, healing their own wounds. Footsteps. Close.
Ai held down release, and without bothering with their dump bag, flung the old mag out and slammed in a full one. A shadow blinked through the window. The door!
Vaulting over the crate, Ai took only a second to adjust their aim to the figure. Taller than they expected, their shots connected to the wide chest first. Unable to stop their momentum and with nothing to lose, they gripped tighter to control the recoil as they slid again. Collar, neck- dead!
Losing their balance they rolled to a stop, slamming into the body. The item box slid out the door. Then they heard it.
A guttural, but soft, and final grunt and the metal creak of his joints folding as he fell. And then they saw his eyes dim.
How strange, it occurred to them then, that the only thing that was holding him up was his consciousness. How deafening it was, to be motionless, without a will. Without it, all sentient things simply just... ceased. Unmoving bodies all succumb to the forces of nature such as gravity and decay.
A second, more horrid, thought occurred to them. Though the light had faded at the speed that it did, when exactly was his sight severed? Did he even feel the bullets being emptied from their magazine into his body? If he felt pain, was it the first or last thing he experienced as he became unable to see? How cruel was it if his eyes continued to shine beyond his ability to see with them? Ai shuddered at the thought.
Dumbly, Ai only stared. Distant, something at the back of their head popped. A sensation, like a tremor, began in the sides of their head as if to compress their brain into playdough, and then it grew to a rumble in the back of their throat. Sound and vision drowned as they heard their squad members rushing over to them. Ai saw them open their mouths as if to yell something but they heard nothing.
Ai looked up at them confusedly, when did they get so tall? Were they still on the ground? What was happening to them? Their brain swam thickly like jelly as they looked around, their eyes focusing on him again, and, all of a sudden, it occurred to them that they were Screaming, shrieking, they were sobbing. They had collapsed, on their knees next to his cold body, wailing. They wondered, distantly, if other squads could hear them, and if they would come silence them and leave them cold too. They felt blank.
Their senses came flooding back to them all at once to Bloodhound shaking them firmly by the shoulders. Even Artur was pecking them (o-oh, ouch?) out of concern. Ai blinked slowly, his body was gone now, as if it was never there in the first place. They then noticed that their mouth was open, so they closed it. They turned to blink blearily at the tracker. They were speaking.
“Hush now dove, please. You will be alright, I am with you,” they soothed. Caustic stood at the ready by the window, his broad back facing away from them both as his eyes were trained on his sights. Spent, Ai checked their HUD and saw that the ring would be moving towards them in about 45 seconds. Shit. They’d been having their heartbreak induced breakdown for approximately 3 minutes. A waste of precious time. Fuck. It’s practically 5-10% of a match.
Wincing, they pushed themselves up and braced themselves for the scolding.
“I’m so sorry,” they mumbled, allowing Bloodhound to prop them up as they tried to stand on their feet. Graciously, they held Ai through their stumbling. “I’m not sure what overcame me, this has never happened before,” they scrambled to check their mags and shields to give them one less thing to reprimand them for.
To their surprise neither of them said anything. Ai looked up sheepishly to see even Mr. Alexander “Caustic” Nox gave them a complex look of concern, though he looked away when Ai met his eyes. Bloodhound, and without turning around to look at him, surely noticed.
“Caustic seemed to be the one most concerned for your well-being,” the speed at which he flung his head in back in their direction was astounding. “I was too of course,” they added smoothly, “But he seems to have trapped every opening of this building for your sake.”
“Why you-” Caustic started, but stopped himself when the announcement for the ring pinged. He only had enough time to sigh loudly, “Let’s get moving, make sure you’re prepared to get inside the ring.” He turned to Bloodhound, “You and I are going to have a talk by the end of this.” They chuckled heartily in response. Even Artur “BOK”’ed his rebuttal.
“Oh, uh.” Ominous! “I’m ready to move in,” Ai cleared their throat and adjusted their arm, “I’m sorry for holding you, I’ll be doing my best here on out.”
“It’s fine,” Caustic huffed as he picked up all his traps again. Bloodhound stood there for a moment longer, facing Ai. They couldn’t see their face, like literally at all, but they were sure they were smiling very kindly at them.
Ai felt a renewed sense of comfort as they continued together with the match. Only 3 squads left. They still lost horribly though. Trapped in a canyon and sandwiched between two squads at the edge of the ring. A perfectly lovely way to die.
To add insult to injury the enemy pathfinder decided to big dick it and scale an entire mountain range just to kick Ai’s whole ass. Truly the worst nightmare (like can you even imagine how fucking scary that was?? My back was to the ring and suddenly Pathfinder fell on my head and bitch slapped me! Insane!).