Chapter Text
Horizon couldn’t say truthfully what had happened in the past hour or so. She could take a guess. Oh, she could take several guesses- each one more unbelievable than the rest, but she could not say with one-hundred percent certainty the events that had transpired since boarding the Apex ship with her fellow Legends.
It had been a normal day, like everyone since joining the Apex Games, with Dr Mary Somers slipping into the role of Horizon and entering the ship that would drop her and her assigned team off at the Apex Arena. Said Arena being the entirety of her former home, Olympus.
But it hadn't been long since boarding the ship that they had begun to experience some bad turbulence. Nothing like Horizon had felt when escaping the dark heart of the universe, but still bad enough that she and the others had, had to find seats and remain in them for a good ten minutes or so before it all happened.
'It' being the crash.
That was where things had gotten messy and Horizon had found herself disoriented. She thought she might've hit her head on something during the fall back to solid ground, but she had, had no time to check as not even a minute later and she felt the impact of the ship hitting the ground. Everything had faded into nothingness in no more than a millisecond.
It was the distinct sound of nature uncommon to Olympus that woke Horizon an undetermined amount of time later. That's not to say there was no wildlife or any form of nature at all on Olympus, but there seemed to be less so the older Horizon got. Either way, she awoke to the sound of chirping birds and a running waterfall rather than the sound of gunfire and fighting she'd expected. There was a cold breeze on her back, icy and colder than she was used to on Olympus.
She brought a hand to her head in confusion, noting the way it pounded. Slowly, she managed to shuffle herself into a sitting position, eyes closed against the light she could feel on her eyelids. She pulled her goggles off, the way they were pressing into her already aching head making her uncomfortable.
Everything hurt. She couldn't remember what had happened since boarding the ship, but there must have been some kerfuffle because she could feel its effects on her suddenly weary body.
"Dr Somers, ya awake. How are ya feelin'?"
Horizon winced against the voice, recognising it as Lifeline. Though why they were suddenly using real names escaped Horizon.
She tested out her response in her head, wondering if she had the energy to form words right now. As she swallowed against her sandpaper throat, she felt Lifeline place a hand on her arm.
"I'm all right, darlin'," she went with, "What happened? Did we run into another squad?"
Somehow it had escaped Horizon before she spoke that Lifeline wasn't even on her team today. She thought maybe she should be worried now, but she didn't have the energy.
"Uh, why don't ya go on and open ya eyes, eh?" Lifeline suggested.
Horizon's head fell back against the wall behind her.
"My head hurts," she complained quietly.
"Ah, I think I got some pain killers here somewhere."
The sound of rustling caught Horizon's ears before it stopped and she felt Lifeline putting something into her hand free hand.
"Go on and take a couple of those. They should help for now."
Horizon sighed put blindly pulled the cap off of the painkillers and retrieved two of the painkillers. She managed then to open her eyes a little, just enough to see the pills though her sight was distractingly blurry. Safe in the knowledge she wasn't being poisoned or something of the like, she tossed the pills into her mouth and swallowed.
One almost caught in her throat, but she managed to swallow it down successfully.
With her eyes now open fully and her vision slowly returning to normal, she looked around at her surroundings. Lifeline was knelt in front of her and she, herself, was sitting up against a wall. It was almost definitely the ship she and the others had boarded, to begin with, but the only difference now was the noticeable disappearance of the front of the ship.
Eyes wide and confusion deepening, Horizon rose to her feet with Lifeline following quickly, concern on her face.
"Hey, don't panic, we've sent a distress signal," Lifeline informed her.
"A distress signal?" Horizon repeated as she stared at the missing half of the ship and the unrecognisable landscape outside.
The ship had crashed. Where were they?
"Yeah. No need t' worry, eh?"
"Where are we?" Horizon asked.
”I’m not sure,” Lifeline admitted.
Horizon nodded. No need to worry, as Lifeline had said. Help was on the way and they would be back to the Apex Games as soon as possible.
Looking around the remains of the ship, she couldn’t see many of the others. The ones she could see looked to still be unconscious.
“Where is everyone?” She questioned.
Lifeline’s face fell and she clasped her gloved hands in front of her. Suddenly nervous. Horizon frowned.
”Ajay?” All formalities were finally gone as Mary searched the ship for the remaining Legends.
Ajay sighed. Mary could see her swallowing, and she couldn’t help but do so herself.
“The crash...” Ajay started, “not all of us made it out unscathed. Some of the others- they didn’ make it.”
”Didn’t make it?” Mary repeated incredulously. “What do you mean?”
”Some of them died, Dr Somers.”
“But they can’t have. They’re Apex Legends. They don’t just die.”
”In the games, maybe, but they’re only human, Mary,” Ajay shook her head sadly. She looked just as broken as Mary felt. “We’re not immortal.”
”Who?”
”What?”
”Who died?”
Ajay sighed. Mary watched as she looked up at the missing ceiling and blinked away tears that must have burned before making eye contact again.
There was a moment of obvious hesitation from Ajay then she shook her head.
”We lost...” she faltered, “sorry. We lost Anita, Makoa, Octavio, Nox, Ramya, Park, Pathfinder, and Elliott.”
”Elliott is dead?” Mary murmured.
She and the Witt lad had become fast friends since she joined the Apex Games. He was lively and friendly if a bit awkward at times and- well, somehow he managed to remind Mary of her son, Newton.
Every day she missed her boy more and more, but Elliott’s friendship somehow managed to soothe that pain into a dull ache.
“I’m sorry. I know ya were close,” Ajay looked down.
Mary shook her head.
”It’s okay. When our rescue ship arrives, we’ll take him and the others back to the Games and they’ll be fine in no time,” she said.
Ajay looked confused, “I don’t think-“
Before she could finish, something high pitched and unhuman pierced the air, startling the both of them out of their conversation.
Mary grabbed Ajay’s arm, startled, and Ajay shuffled backwards as if ready to bolt before seeming to ground herself and tensing.
”Ya heard that?” Ajay asked a minute later.
“Hard to miss, darlin,” Mary replied.
Slowly, she let go of Ajay and glanced around.
“Why aren’t the others awake yet?” She changed the subject in an attempt to forget the scream that was now echoing ceaselessly in her mind.
“Ah,” Ajay chuckled, “I’m pretty sure I saw you usin’ your gravity lift when we were crashin’.”
”I don’t remember that,” Mary said though it sounded like something she would have done, “dinnae remember much, actually.”
“Yeah. Smart move. Dangerous, though. D.O.C. found me after we crashed. He’s damaged, though so he wasn’t able to wake the others. I was patching them up when I saw ya waking,” Ajay explained.
Mary nodded and shuffled through scraps of metal and other debris to get to the other Legends. She found them near the back of the ship. They looked like they must have been moved as they all lay beside each other in a clear area of the floor.
All sorts of medical equipment surrounded them and some of the Legends had been bandaged up, though some blood was now seeping through the white bandages.
Mary counted the Legends, relieved to see not only her colleagues but her friends in decent shape. No damages that could hinder them or prevent them from moving around. They seemed to merely have a few cuts and bruises, and in Wraith’s case, a fairly big wound on her right arm though Mary couldn’t see what was actually hidden behind the bandage.
She crept closer and knelt down beside Natalie, brushing some of her fringe away to see the bandage wrapped around her forehead.
”I see the Simulacrum survived,” she noted next.
”Yeah. They’ll all be okay, though,” Ajay joined her and continued her work of patching the Legend’s wounds up.
Something caught Mary’s eye.
“Hound’s goggles are broken,” she pointed out.
Somehow the adrenaline of waking up in a crashed ship was wearing off and she now just felt exhausted. Her shoulders slouched and she swiped her hand across her face.
”I know, I couldn’t find any spare. Didn’t think they’d want me to remove them anyway,” Ajay said.
Shuffling closer, Mary carefully removed Bloodhound’s helmet and then manoeuvred their goggles off of their face. She brushed away small pieces of glass in the process, not wanting them to get it in their eyes when they woke.
”What’re ya doing?” Ajay asked. Her attention was drawn from Loba and her brows furrowed.
Mary only glanced back at her then turned back to Hound as she took off her own goggles and began to put them on Hound instead.
She didn’t know what it was about Hound that made them hide their identity from everyone, but she would respect that choice and assist them without hesitation if they found themselves in such as situation as now where their goggles had broken.
She was just putting their helmet back on when something grabbed her arm and she let out an alarmed yell.
“What are you doing, andskoti?”
Bloodhound’s grip on Mary’s arm was tight but not painful. Enough so that she couldn’t pull it away.
They had sat up now and belatedly, Mary realised she could see their eyes behind their borrowed goggles. The lenses weren’t as dark as on their own goggles and Mary was shocked to see a single red eye staring back at them. Their other eye was blue.
”Hey, Hound, she was just lendin’ ya her goggles. Yours are broken,” Ajay was beside Mary, holding up their broken goggles.
Bloodhound let go of Mary who nursed her arm with pursed lips. It didn’t hurt, but the shock of them waking up and grabbing her lingered.
They took their goggles from Ajay and examined them. They ran their gloved hand over the broken lenses and sighed, the noise garbled through their respirator.
”Thank you,” they turned their attention to Mary, “I apologise if I hurt you, you merely startled me.”
”Och, ya didn’t hurt me, love,” Mary waved them off, “but how are you feelin’?”
”I am confused. Was our ship shot down?”
Bloodhound rose from the floor and approached the open area where the front of the ship should have been. Mary watched their shoulders rise and fall as they stared out at the forest their ship seemed to have crashed in.
“What do ya mean, shot down?” Ajay asked.
“You did not see it?” Bloodhound turned their head as Ajay and Mary joined them.
”No. What did ya see, Hound?”
”It was as we were experiencing some turbulence. I saw something quickly approaching our ship and then we began to fall,” Bloodhound revealed.
”What was it?” Mary asked.
”I am not sure how I can explain it,” Bloodhound sighed once again.
”Ah well, never mind,” Ajay shrugged, “help will be here soon and we can return to the Games and forget any of this ever happened, eh?”
”How long till our rescue arrives, anyway?” Mary leant against the wall of the ship.
”A day at the most,” Ajay said. “The signal out here ain’t so great, but I managed to send a distress signal before it cut out. I haven’t been able to get into contact since then.”
”Suppose we should just stay here till they arrive, then,” Mary tapped her foot, the mere idea of remaining in one place for so long horrifying to her.
“I do not think that is a good idea, félagi fighters,” Bloodhound shook their head.
Mary watched as they stepped out of the ship and crouched down to examine the plant life.
”Why not?” Ajay asked.
”Have you left the ship?” Bloodhound returned a question.
”No, I stayed inside the patch everybody up,” Ajay replied.
”I only woke up recently,” Mary added.
”Somebody else was here,” Bloodhound stated.
Ajay and Mary shared a look as the latter pushed away from the wall.
“Recently,” Bloodhound continued, “a few minutes ago perhaps.”
“A few minutes ago?” Mary’s eyes widened marginally.
”We heard a scream,” Ajay revealed. “Not long ago, but we ignored it.”
Hound stopped examining the grass and looked up at Ajay and Mary.
“I believe we are being watched. We must relocate.”