Chapter Text
"Eh-?"
W snapped around as a glint came from the corner of her eye, already reaching into her vest. Her eyes glance across the metallic, dimly lit hallways of the ship before she bites down into her lip.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Should've stayed quiet. If anyone was following you, now they're scared off.
Natural instinct had her clutching one of her grenades by the pin on the way to the training room, one of the only places she could get some peace and quiet in Rhodes. No one would be using it at midnight. Every now and again she was sure that she could hear another set of footsteps moving through the building, someone ready to assassinate her for ditching Reunion.
If it was Crown, she was safe.
If it was anyone else, she might've worried a little more.
She dashes around a corner and then waits, pressed up against the wall, tail wrapping around her leg just to make absolutely certain that it wouldn't give her hiding spot away. Silence hit the halls, her bright eyes staring at where she expected something to happen, anything to come and rationalize her fears.
After five minutes of waiting and hearing nothing but the sound of idling cleanup drones, she lets out a sharp hiss and stomps her foot down.
"Come the fuck on, why couldn't it be someone I can blow up-? The tension is going to kill me," she mumbles under her breath, shutting her eyes and sliding her back down the wall she had made her safe haven.
It would've been so much easier if it had just been Talulah ready to finally take Rhodes Island to the pits of Hell in a fiery inferno of a catastrophe. Instead, curling her knees into her chest, hand pulling out the grenade she had been holding for comfort and staring down the pin with irritation, she had to deal with the mental anguish of uncertainty.
Was she being followed by the stealthiest assassin in the world, or was the oripathy running through her veins finally giving her hallucinations?
So many questions she didn't know how to answer.
In time, the sarkaz pushes herself to her feet with her free hand, unwraps her tail, and then keeps on the move through the empty hallways, a newfound briskness to her pace. If she could get to the training room she could at least drown her worries away in explosives and fire.
One of her latest gadgets was a set of marbles that splattered acid everywhere on impact, and the other she was itching to try was something she asked Mayer to help her with: A little spider filled with originium, which would run at and cling to living creatures and could be remotely detonated. That was going to be exciting to see in action.
In the process of zoning out, she stopped suddenly. She could've sworn she heard those footsteps again.
She all of a sudden turns and tosses the grenade down the hallway behind her, leaving the pin around her middle finger, scowling as she turns and bolts in the opposite direction.
Three, two, one. . .
Boom. She looks back behind her and glances at the damage. A window was blown out, part of the ceiling tiles crashed to the floor where an unhealthy dosage of spent originium laid.
And no one in sight.
She keeps running down the hallway without taking a second look back.
Then it hit her.
She hit her.
Both of them went crashing to the ground, and W was the first one to reach up clutching her head and let out a strong "Fuck!"
In front of her through her fingers, she caught a glance at those brown rabbit ears and sapphire eyes, regaining composure silently.
Amiya.
"What the hell are you doing running around at midnight!?" W says, scrambling to her feet and dusting herself off. "I swear, could've been, I dunno, possessed by the ghosts haunting this shitty place," she goes on, then bit her tongue as she watched the shorter girl move to stand as well.
"I was having a nightmare… So I went to get some air, then I heard an explosion…" Amiya says in a much more gentle, even tone. Those deep eyes glance W over once, then look down the hallway. "I guess that was-"
"Yeah it was me," the sarkaz starts up in return, and then she takes a deep breath, staring Amiya down.
"What happened..? You can tell me."
Almost like she was compelled to give the other girl an answer, W rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest, the pin of the grenade still dangling from her finger. Not like she could hide it, anyway. "I kept hearing... Something. Footsteps. Was it you-? No, I know your footsteps. They were like…" And then she goes silent.
She looks down at Amiya's shoes. Her lips purse, and then she glances back up to that rounded face. "Nevermind," she says, and then turns away.
"What-? W, wait-" Amiya calls after her.
W drops her arms to her sides and curls her fingers into her palms, tail lashing back and forth low to the ground.
Both of them sit in silence. Moments pass, and in time Amiya steps forward to be beside the explosive-tempered sarkaz. "If you blew something up because you were mad…"
"You don't believe me-? I swear, there were footsteps and they were chasing me!" W nearly gets on the edge of shouting, the only thing keeping her voice down enough to not echo through the halls was the other girl's face in the corner of her peripheral. Then she takes a deep breath, and turns her head to stare at one of the walls instead. "Listen, tell Kal or whoever to look at the cameras. Promise there was some shit around here, but I need to go let off some steam."
Before Amiya could stop her again, W turns on her heels, towards the training room once again.
Something else stopped her though.
For just a second, out of the corner of her eye, she could've sworn she saw long, flowing white hair.
W's eyes widen, and when she jolts her head to stare directly at Amiya, all she saw was brown.
Now thoroughly confused, Amiya scratches her head and watches W. Discomfort steadily increased when her gaze didn't move away. Softly, she spoke up. "Hey, W..?"
No response.
Amiya's ears droop against the sides of her head, and her eyes dart away. Then, like that, the hallway was filled with the sound of W's boots hitting the ground, making her ears jolt up again. "Wait, W-"
The sarkaz had already made her choice, though. She was getting far away from all the ghosts she could. Thoughts raced through her head, and she was certain that these hallways felt a lot longer than they were supposed to. Each second felt like minutes, and as she finally spun around a series of corners, and hits the door marked 'TRAINING' with a heavy thud, forcing her to the ground.
Her hands reach up and cover her eyes, but then she suddenly hears it again. The sound of footsteps, the same footsteps as before. Her head snaps around, and-
Nothing.
W stands up and forces the training room door open with what little strength she could still feel in her arms, and almost immediately as she steps in she slams it closed. Now, all she could hear was the heavy sound of her breathing, her heart pounding in her chest, and the soft voice of dead woman calling her name.