Work Text:
"Were you going to give me to them?"
The question hung in the filtered, yet stuffy air of the tent. Unanswered for a few painful seconds. She searched his face for a reaction. She could see a sheen in his eyes, she wasn't sure were tears or an effect of the fever that he no doubt sported by now. His eyes made some small movements, wandering over her own face and she could see the gears turning in his head. In that moment she knew she would never be able to completely trust anything coming out of his mouth.
"Noo..." he finally said. The single syllable outstretched a fraction of a second too long, to sound completely genuine, but tinged with a 'don't-you-dare-doubt-me' tone. He averted his eyes, looked to the ground.
She held the thrower up, still aiming at him.
"No?" she asked, raising her eyebrows ironically. She didn't feel like smiling, but did it anyway.
He took in a sharp breath. His eyes were on hers again.
"No." he repeated, this time shorter, to the point and with a hint of anger in his voice.
She huffed.
"What do you expect me to say here, little bird?" he asked, sounding frustrated, making a helpless gesture with his hand.
"Were you going to GIVE me to them!?" she repeated, this time louder, slightly shaking the thrower in her hands.
He fell silent again, his eyes fixed on the thrower. She could see him grinding his teeth, the muscles in his jaw visually tense.
"I considered it...." he finally admitted, still avoiding her eyes, but keeping his voice loud and clear, not hiding the stark meaning behind messy pronunciation. He tried sitting up straighter, but didn't have enough strength in his left arm to do so.
"I don't know why you absolutely need to hear the obvious, girl, but yes, of course I had to weigh my options! But eventually I wouldn't have-"
"you're just saying that, so I help you!" she interrupted him.
"Then shoot me already!!..." he shouted. She flinched.
"... If you're not going to listen to what I'm saying! It'll be your loss, you'll need me, dealing wi-..." he continued but had to cough painfully and couldn't end his sentence.
"I saw how you looked at that Aurelac!" she said after his coughs had subsided to a heavy breathing.
"I looked confused! That's how I looked at that Aurelac!" he answered with a cracking voice.
"I didn't have a clue, what he was gonna say. I was stunned, Birdie!" he sighed.
Cee huffed again.
"But you didn't say 'No'..."
Ezra sighed again, leaned his head against the table behind him but didn't say anything to defend himself.
"Why didn't you?" Cee pressed him to talk.
"You were up and away, before I could come to that point!" Ezra snapped, pointing a finger somewhere behind her.
"I ran because you didn't say it!" Cee snapped back at him. She waved the thrower through the air in an angry gesture and then rested it on her knee, seemingly forgotten, no longer aiming at the man before her.
"It's not that simple!" Ezra hissed through clenched teeth.
"It IS!" Cee shouted angrily.
"I didn't have enough time!" Ezra raised his voice.
“You REALLY wanna argue about this, while I'm basica-” Ezra was cut off again by coughing.
Cee interrupted him, not waiting for him to get his bearing, raising her voice, to be heard over his coughing.
"You had enough time to ask what they wanted me for! You should have said 'No' instead, but you didn't!"
Ezra bore his eyes into hers. As soon as he was able to speak again he hissed at her.
"Miss high and mighty, you talk as if you had, oh, so much insight, but the truth is, you obviously don't have a clue 'bout nothing."
He looked at her with contempt as he continued.
"In a perfect world I would have said 'No I will absolutely not sell this girl to you.', because I didn't need their fucking help!"
He kept talking himself into a rage.
"In a perfect world I wouldn't be stranded on this death trap of a moon for MONTHS!" he kicked at the filtration system of the tent, with hatred but without doing any damage.
"I wouldn't have gotten myself shot by a little girl. I wouldn't need YOUR help!"
Ezra squinted his eyes at Cee and pointed a weak finger at the ground as if to make a point.
"And yes, maybe in a perfect fucking world I WOULD have sold you and would have collected just as much Aurelac as your father intended to steal from me!" he then pointed his finger at his own chest in an angry gesture.
"But in THIS world I'm going to die! The Saters could have saved not only my damn arm, but my LIFE! Had I said 'No' right away, you think they would have done ANYTHING for me, stupid thing!?"
Ezra had used up all the air in his lungs to let out all his frustration in one go, so the last sentence was forced out between raspy breaths. He had pulled up his knees, breathing heavily, fighting the urge to cough.
"...So you would have sold me!" Cee smugly triumphed at his admittance.
"No!" Ezra groaned annoyed and shook his head weakly.
"You just said so yourself!" Cee spat out.
"Hey!!" Ezra shouted hoarsely. It was so loud, she flinched back. He pointed his finger at her.
Cee opened her mouth to shout back at him.
"I'm sorry! Okay?" Ezra interrupted her before she could talk, his hand now opened, palm up, but his voice raised.
"I apologize for my outburst, it was..."
He waved his hand in the air, dismissively.
"... uncalled for. I - I didn't mean what I said!“
He forced himself to smile.
“You're a reasonable girl, you know people say things they don't mean, under stress. You know that, right?"
and added another "Right!" in a downright commanding tone, his eyebrows raised, looking her straight in the eyes.
Before Cee had a chance to react, he continued, desperate to keep the situation under control.
"I'm sorry, I made you feel unsafe by not denying their offer of Aurelac on the spot. I know it didn't help build trust between us..."
She rolled her eyes at the word 'trust' and mumbled "shut up...".
Ezra ignored her response and continued.
"...and that's my fault. My actions in the time of our acquaintance weren't inclined to make you put your fate into my hands. So I see how you are reluctant to believe me...But you NEED to see my side of this! I wasn't going to leave you there, Birdie, I swear, I swear on this... stupid Puzo..." he said, pointing at her chest, meaning the Puzo sweater, which he knew she still wore under her suit.
"It's Puzu... " she mumbled.
"I swear on whatever you tell me to swear upon! But... I needed to go along enough, so they gave me wha-..."
"Shut up! Just stop talking!" Cee repeated louder. This time Ezra stopped talking abruptly.
He waited for a few seconds, intently watching her face, waiting if she was going to talk.
"Say something!" Erza grunted.
As she just continued to stare at the wall, he carefully started talking again in a low voice. He tried to make his voice sound as soothing as possible, like when calming down an animal, you're afraid will bite.
"I know you're overwhelmed. The situation back there was scary! I get it!"
He waited for a moment, calculating if he could push a little further.
"And your situation is still shit, if I may say so... If you help me now, I can help you later. I WILL help you get out of here! I gave years of my life to the Green, I know my way around! I know how to deal with mercenaries.” he said, with as much assurance and calmness in his voice as he could muster.
“We will catch that damn sling back...I don't intend to go down here, I won't give this horrendous verdant orb that satisfaction! And I will make sure you don't have to as well..." he mumbled the last few sentences.
As she still didn't react to his reasoning and avoided his eyes, he grew weary, shifted his body around in a notion of unease. He put his shaky hand on his forehead and ran it through his hair, making it stick up, wet from fever-induced sweat. All the while his pleading eyes were on her face.
"I'm not one to beg, usually. But to be complete candid with you...”
he paused with a forced smile, as if he had to bring himself to the admittance, that followed.
“...I'm scared, I'm scared shitless, Birdie. I'm gonna- I - I'm gonna die, if you don't help me.....Please help me." he continued, almost whispering the last words.
Cee still didn't look at him.
After a few seconds of silence, he couldn't contain himself any longer.
"Goddammit, say something!" he hisses and his face switched from pitiful to angry in a second.
"Don't just sit there! It's your fault, I'm in this mess, so at least TALK to me!" he spat out.
Cee finally looked at him with cold eyes and a bitter smile.
"I'm keen to make the case for you. You killed yourself..." she quoted his own comment about being responsible for her father's death. The sarcasm in her words was cutting.
Ezra's face fell and he drew in a shaky breath as the meaning of her words sank in. She wasn't sure if he was going to cry, but this time it looked like tears were welling in his eyes.
Cee stood up.
"No!” Ezra pressed out though clenched teeth.
"'No', what?" Cee countered in a mocking tone.
"You don't get to just leave like a sulking child, because you didn't like, how I handled a DAMN serious situation!" he muttered frustrated.
"You handled it like shit!" Cee yelled at him.
"Without me you would've-" Ezra started, but interrupted himself, pressing his lips together.
"Keep talking!" Cee mocked him.
Ezra bore his eyes into hers, chawing at his bottom lip, thinking about how to salvage the situation but ended up empty-handed.
"I don't see why I should stay. Why I should help you."
Cee continued.
"You need me!" he said after a few seconds, looking up to her from the floor.
It sounded desperate and more like he tried to convince himself.
"So you keep saying..." Cee answered quietly. "You're wearing it off."
Ezra's eyes landed on the thrower, now hanging on her outstretched arm and his healthy hand formed a fist involuntarily.
"You're too weak to overpower me by now." Cee assessed the situation and considered pointed the thrower back at him, but deemed it unnecessary.
"...And it wouldn't do you any good. You couldn't make me perform this procedure on you at gunpoint. And you don't know shit!” she said and angrily gestured at him with the muzzle of the thrower.
“You don't know where the mercs are, you don't know where the queen's lair is, you don't have a ship, you're stranded, you're hurt, your filter... " she continued counting things on her fingers.
"You're just giving all the reason why I wouldn't have left you with those people!" Ezra interrupted her, eagerly grasping at straws.
"That's not the - " Cee began, but Ezra wouldn't let her talk.
"And you're right! I - I don't know shit. You never let me have a look at your map, you're clever like that..." he blatantly flattered her with a smile.
"And I never FORCED you, you remember? I could have overpowered you at any point, we both know that! I could've just taken it from you, taken your filter and leave you to your demise, but I didn't!" he pointed his unsteady finger at her.
"And you think that makes any of what you DID better!!?" Cee asked, looking at him in disbelief.
"Damn it, i just want you to understand you can trust me! I GAVE you the thrower. I gave it to make you feel save....And because I trust you! All I'm asking is for you to reciprocate. For both our sakes! We need to work together here, can't you see that, Birdie!"
Ezra sounded as if he couldn't decide to be angry or scared.
"All you're really saying is I have no choice but to trust you. But I don't, okay? I just don't trust you. You're a murderer and a liar!... " Cee spat out.
"I never lied to you, Birdie..." he sighed and ran his hand over his face.
"Call me Birdie one more time and I WILL shoot you, I swear!" Cee yelled and Ezra visibly flinched, staring at her, wide-eyed.
"... And I don't need your help, so I'm going to leave now!" she continued.
"The mercs won't help you." he retorted after a moment of processing what she had said.
"So you keep saying..." Cee repeated herself, as she put down her backpack.
Ezra grunted
"You don't intend to go to them alone?" making it sound like the most stupid idea ever, by smiling as if it had to have been a joke and even forcing out a strained chuckle.
"I do!" she retorted.
Ezra let out a arrogant huff and gave her a dark smile.
"I told you before, you'd be better off with me protecting you! I'm no Saint, granted, but I'm the lesser evil, for sure. Those mercs won't mess around and they won't..."
"Keeva! Why do I even still talk to you? You're just saying whatever you need to keep me here. You're just saying stuff to scare me!"
Cee cut him short.
"I'm just trying to-.." he started, shaking his head.
Cee held up her hand.
Ezra paused for a second and started again.
“ALL I'm trying to do is-”
“No!” Cee said and waved her hand, ordering him to be silent.
Ezra looked up attentively. Cee held up her forefinger to get his attention and then slowly said:
"There is nothing you can say to change my mind, so save your breath! You dug your own grave! I'll go there, alone. I'll tell them what happened, explain everything and ask for a way up. My father had a contract with them. I'll make it work somehow!"
"You're being unreasonable!" Ezra growled.
"Just 'cause I don't do what YOU want!" Cee practically exploded.
His face slipped again, unable to keep up a neutral expression.
"You'll ruin both our chances to get off this moon!" Ezra shouted and started coughing again as a result.
"No, just yours." Cee said in a normal volume, not caring if he could hear her over his coughing.
"You can't harvest!" Erza said, out of breath.
"Neither can you in that state! So, What?!" Cee shot back immediately.
She put on her headset.
"Girl, don't do this, please!" Ezra now pleaded, putting on a expression of pure plight. Seeing her actually getting ready to leave, seemed to put him in a state of panic.
Cee did her best to ignore him, while she stuffed a few of the food items scattered around the bunk-beds into her backpack.
All of a sudden a small Puzo key-pendant, lying amongst other things on the ground, caught her eye. She paused for a second, took the pendant in her hand and looked at it.
"Think about, what you're doing here!" Ezra snapped her back into reality. She couldn't tell if the fear in his voice was real or calculated.
"You're not a killer, we both know that!" Ezra continued, as he saw he had her attention.
"And don't think, leaving me here in this state is not killing me!"
Cee put Puzo in the suit's pocket on her thigh.
"It will be. Like you did it with your own hands. Can - can you live with that?!" she heard Ezra behind her back, feigning shock about her callousness.
"You'd deserve it..." she mumbled as she put the last nutrition bar in her backpack.
Ezra nodded although she couldn't see it.
"You seek retribution. I understand the notion that my wrong-doings may justify revenge. But let's be honest, revenge should not get in the way of reason, Bird-' he began the nickname but bit his tongue.
After a moment of waiting for a reaction, in which she just kept packing the backpack, he carefully continued.
"We are not beyond reconciliation. We just start fresh! You might think you have to go through with this, now that you started it. But you can still turn this around.”
She paused.
“Decide to help me! For - your - own - sake! It won't be a sign of weakness!" Ezra told her, and if she hadn't known he was actually pleading for his own life, one could have believed he actually cared for hers.
"Why shouldn't I just have my revenge?" Cee mused more to herself, but Ezra heard her and answered,
"Because that is something you can't come back from."
"Who says I want to?" she laughed humourless, turned around to face him and closed the backpack.
"When you realize you need me..." Ezra said flatly and left the sentence unfinished.
"...That's not gonna be...your problem any more." Cee countered, but wavered.
Ezra sported a dark and arrogant smirk.
“I'm really curious what the Green has in petto for you, my girl..."
Cee couldn't help but shudder at that, for a moment.
“The things I've seen people do....People are vile! This place is vile! And when you face it alone, chances are good it will obliterate you!” he stated with a cold voice.
Ezra's grin grew wider, as he saw her hesitate.
"Let's face it, Birdie. I'm too valuable an asset for you to just leave behind. You know that! Use your brain, girl! You might not trust me, but you can't afford to just abandon me!"
His grin grew so self assured, it infuriated Cee beyond all measures.
"Watch me!" Cee said with relish and swung the backpack on her back.
She connected the tube of her helmet with her filter and put the helmet on. The filter was practically only decoration by now, but she refused to let Ezra know that.
Ezra sighed but kept his arrogant grin plastered on his face. In combination with the paleness, the dark circles forming under his eyes and the sweat covering his face, he was a dreadfull sight.
“'m 'fraid we steered ourselves into a bit of an altercation.” he said, blinking rapidly at the ground, slightly slurring the words.
"You don't want to do this!" he added, looking up at her, trying to keep his pronunciation clear.
She rolled her eyes and made a step forward.
As he realized, she was determined to actually leave, Ezra mobilized his last strength and moved to stand up. It would have been a pitiful sight, if she hadn't already used up all her sympathy for him.
He struggled but was now on all fours, or rather threes, since he didn't even try to put any weight on his injured arm.
Cee cursed herself for being glued to the place, unable to react.
"No, girl, seriously, don't do this!" Ezra said, wildly out of breath but the anger in his voice was still evident.
“I need to inform you that deep down, I'm a real petty person!” Ezra used valuable oxygen to tell her.
"Just let me through! I don't want to hurt you!" Cee said to him, almost pleading.
"Feeling's not mutual." Ezra dead-panned and drew himself up the best he could, heavily leaning on the table behind him, his healthy arm shaking from the effort to keep him upright.
For a moment both didn't move. Ezra waited for her reaction, Cee tried to find a way to avoid confrontation. He seemed to tower over her and she realized how threatening he appeared even in his condition.
Cee summoned up all her courage, slowly twitched the thrower to her left, to have it on his weak side and was just preparing herself to storm past him, winning the fight with agility, when he started towards her. His legs were shaky, but he managed to close the short distance in the cramped tent, practically falling against her, corner her and reached his left hand for the thrower.
Intuitively Cee turned and had her side facing him. She kept the thrower out of reach and elbowed him in the stomach as hard as she could. Normally this wouldn't phase Ezra, but weak and injured, he toppled over and landed on his knees.
His hand shot out again before Cee could react.
He got a hold of the attached pocket on her left thigh and pulled with all the strength he had left. Ironically it was the pocket she had put Puzo in and the little pendant now gave Ezra's fist something to close around to keep a tight grip.
She stumbled, but kept standing. Cee hadn't missed, that his intention had been to grab the tube coming out of her filter, but hadn't aimed well.
She could see how he tried to grab her with his right arm, while his left arm kept her in place. But he seemed to have lost almost all feeling and strength in the injured limb, that kept hanging lifeless at his side. He grunted, frustrated. His face was distorted into a mask of pain and fury.
Cee fumbled for the pocket's clasps, but the pull from Ezra's hand made it impossible to detach the pocket from the suit and free herself.
He tugged again. She lost her balance for a second and they both stumbled against the table. The thrower collided with the table's material with a loud metallic sound. She had almost dropped the weapon, but still held it in her hand. Her lower body collided with Ezra, banging his head against the table, leading to another loud noise. He grunted in pain but got his bearing quickly.
He used their proximity to let go of the pocket and aim for the filter tube again. Cee acted out of impulse and grabbed the tube herself with her free hand to protect it from his grasp.
That gave Ezra the chance to close his hand around her wrist. Cee tried to pull away, but his hand was surprisingly strong, considering his state.
She stepped back and pulled as hard as she could. Pulling Ezra with her, he lost the last stability. He got pulled off his knees by Cee's tugging and fell on his right side with a pained cry, because he landed right on his festering wound. But to her frustration, he did NOT let go of her wrist.
Over her own raspy breathing and the helmet muffling sounds, she could hear Ezra say things, she couldn't make out, but didn't sound nice. Ezra tried kicking at her lower legs to make her fall, but wasn't able to from his position, at all.
She knew, if she'd fall that'd be it.
Cee did her best to free herself and tried walking backwards towards the entrance of the tent. Practically dragging the weight of a grown man with her, her helmet started fogging up from her breath, her arm was screaming and she almost lost her footing several times, as the soil gave in under her boots.
He clung onto her wrist with all his might, but Cee could feel his hand shake under the strain. He let out a bloodcurdling scream, when the wound on his arm scraped over the floor, as she pulled one more time. In pain, Ezra had almost lost his grip, but still held on to her. He must have been too weak to get up, by now. Otherwise he wouldn't have let her drag him like this.
"Let go!" Cee screamed, now tears in her eyes. She just wanted this to end.
He lay awkwardly on his injured arm, half on the side, half on his belly, his head yanked up forcefully, but he couldn't lift it high enough to look at her.
Without overthinking it too much she aimed the thrower at him.
In such short distance, she managed to hit him on his left side lower ribcage. He didn't scream, he just exhaled loudly, followed by a struggle to breath in again.
As a cough attack shook his body, he lost the rest of the energy he had left. Cee could feel his hand's grip loosening. She pulled her arm back and her wrist was finally free.
Ezra fell on his front, unable to support his weight. He coughed violently and Cee's knees almost got weak at the whimpering sound that left his throat a moment later.
Cee walked backwards towards the entrance of the tent. While aiming the thrower at the helpless person on the ground, she undid the zipper of the tent and stepped out.
She stood there indecisively for a few seconds and then turned around and left.
The tent was kept open.
If Ezra would be able to put on his helmet or close the tent by himself, Cee couldn't bring herself to care.