Work Text:
Italicized names indicate Omega characters.
Vicious snarling choked the air of serenity in the streets of Pearl. At the center of the harsh noise, two women were locked in a vicious melee with each other. One, in a rush of rage and bloodlust, lashed at her opponent with violence unbound, while the other struggled to find any footing in the losing fight. Fade of Alpha Earth bore down on her counterpart, her heart convulsing in a fit of fury.
It had been a routine scouting mission on Omega Earth, get in, get info, get out. Being such, she was grossly under equipped for a full confrontation and it certainly was never part of the plan.
One final sweep had set things off. Fade did one more walk around the block of the street she was on to get a slightly higher resolution map when she spotted her. Omega Fade was perusing the windows of the various boutiques along the street, completely oblivious to her otherworldly twin. What was routine scouting mission dissolved into nothing, the snakes of hate strangled reason out of Fade and oblivion surrounded her save one thing, her Omega twin.
A buzz in the back of her head told her that there was someone trying to rein her in for exfil, but as far as Fade was concerned, they could go fuck themselves. A quick glance around showed Fade that the street was luckily vacant for some reason, which meant there was no one stopping her from unleashing hell upon her twin. A guttural roar tore through the street as Fade sent her nightmare cascading through the cobbled road with reckless abandon.
Across the street, Fade barely had time to react to the sudden attack, only the Nightmare's reaction time saving her from becoming completely immobilized. When the wave of Nightfall passed, she threw herself into a ready position, yet still was not ready for the banshee-like call of her twin. Before she knew it, Fade was on top of her, a combat knife in full speed heading for her torso. Dodging the first blow, she looked to retaliate with a counter strike, but was instead caught across the jaw by an almost inhumanly fast punch. The connection was solid, and Fade would have passed out if her adrenaline wasn't pumping as hard as it was.
"You fucker!" Yelled Fade as she battered her mirror image with reckless abandon. "I'll fucking kill you!" It was clear to Fade at this point that the wrath she was feeling was one she brought upon herself, and to see how ruthless it was caught her unprepared to say the least. For a few more moments she managed to stay on her feet, but several well placed slashes from her Alpha twin caused fatigue and pain to shackle her to the ground and a throw from Fade left her wheezing on her back. Leaving no chance for reprieve or otherwise, Fade straddled her double and began pummeling her while spouting her hatred to the world.
"You killed Ytris!"
A punch.
"You took Aslan!"
A hammerfist.
"Why?! Where the fuck did you take him!?"
An elbow.
"I'll fucking kill you over and over again until you tell me!"
On the ground, Fade was certain that her opponent was intent on keeping that promise. Their radiances tangled with each other above them, with Alpha Fade's taking advantage of its opposing Nightmare's weakened host. Every strike rattled her mind and gave her violent nausea that threatened to overtake her. Even if Fade gave her an opportunity to respond, a coherent response would most likely take too long to formulate. Her vision began to go white, the sense of her body left her consciousness as the mane of death beckoned her into the beyond. Seeing no sense in resisting, Fade closed her eyes to be ushered away.
In the distance, a small pop was heard, and the battered Turk assumed that was her cranium finally giving way to the pavement. If that was the case, then why could she still think? Why did she hear another pop and a growl afterwards? Why, through the white, did she catch a glimpse of her precious Tala's face?
On Alpha Earth...
Neon didn't know what to do. She had been very excited for Fade's arrival back at HQ after her recon mission, but upon the Dream Seer's arrival all she got was a cold shoulder and a head shake from Sage. Fade was moody at times, it was her thing as the Scary Nightmare Lady, but those moments were nothing like the aura that the Turkish woman was giving off now. She wanted so desperately to hold Fade and ask her what was wrong, but it felt inappropriate for how incensed she was.
Neon eventually found herself sitting in the common room and wondering what to do, she turned to Phoenix. "Hey pretty boy, what do you do when Jett's mad?" She asked the Duelist who was sat across from her while he tweaked his specter.
Not even looking up from his work, Phoenix answered "Eh dunno. Cook her food. Compliment her. Just moved like that yeah?"
If it was't for her distress Neon would have launched a pillow in Phoenix's direction. She had already thought of both of those, but neither seemed close to being able to tame the demon that was sitting in Fade's dorm. "Ugh. That doesn't help Phoenix." She groaned out.
"Hey mate. Don't say I didn't try. Besides, have you even given those a go yet?" Phoenix continued, now mounting his specter to make sure she was still true. A brief moment of consideration from Neon and she decided that maybe Phoenix had a point. She gave a cleansing breath and a quick harmless pop of electricity into the air before standing up and walking to the kitchen. After a few minutes she was on her way to Fade's dorm with a hot cup of her girlfriend's favorite coffee.
With each step her proverbial jaw mashed loudly in her head, chewing on things to say or do. By the time she arrived, Neon opted to deliver the coffee and sit down. If Fade wanted to talk, she would talk, if Fade wanted to be left alone, then she would leave.
Upon her arrival the door opened loudly, at least it sounded loud to Neon. The tension that had been building on her walk snapped when she caught sight of Hazal, and was replaced with a feeling of melancholy. The dream seer was sat on the edge of her bed, head in her hands and shoulders weakly slackened. There was no anger or animosity present in the room, but rather the cold embrace of exhaustion and despair. The initiator was only partially dressed, Sage having removed her shirt to better dress the two bullet holes put in her by Neon. Hazal didn't even bother acknowledging Tala's entrance, far to sunk into her thoughts to hear the drops of rain in her mind.
Sticking with her plan, Tala walked forward to Hazal and squatted down in front of her. She silently offered the cup to the Turk, who took a moment before accepting the warm cup slowly into her hand. Tala internally celebrated the small victory, hoping it was some indication that things were not as grave as she anticipated. Taking a seat on the bed next to Hazal, she began languidly rubbing her partner's back. Hazal's smooth skin was always a pleasant sensation to her, and Tala new that her girlfriend also appreciated the physical affection. Some amount of time passed before the silence broke and Tala gave a small jump at its abruptness.
"I had her Tala... she was going to tell me..." Hazal mumbled with barely concealed disappointment. Next to her, Tala screwed her face in confusion and before she could think to do otherwise she asked,
"Who?"
A sip from the coffee, more silence. Tala could barely see Hazal's reflection in the dark drink, but the hint of hatred that came from the image felt tangible.
"Her... well... me." Hazal said into the coffee. "I had her on the ground. I almost literally knocked her brains out... I was about to take her with me when her Neon showed up. Dumb bitch shot me twice and I had to pull out..."
Immediately after Hazal realized what she may have implied, she transferred the coffee to her other hand and rested her now free appendage on Tala's thigh. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like-"
"Oh. No it's fine babe. I know what you meant... but what was she going to tell you?" She inquired even though she had a hunch what the answer was going to be. Hazal took a deep breath before answering. "Where she took Aslan... The person I thought you guys took."
Stunned into silence for a moment, Tala couldn't help herself from pressing forward with her questioning.
"How do you know she even has them?" She asked. Another beat and Hazal responded.
"On one of our older missions I sent a bug into the Dark Network when we went near a server. Next time I was over there I pulled the data from it and found correspondences between Eyletmez and a few of her contacts. They were all talking about moving and securing a VIP. If it isn't Aslan, I don't know who it would be." She said before continuing. "Tala… I need you to promise me something."
The sentence caused a rod of adrenaline to go through Tala's system. She froze up at the tone that Hazal took, and the potential request that was coming her way. Too tense to speak, she lowered herself back onto the ground and looked up into Hazal's hypnotic bi-colored eyes. Then, Hazal spoke.
"No matter what. No matter who we have to burn, be them Valorant agents, or bystanders, or anyone. Promise me... promise me we'll get him back..."
.
.
.
"I promise."
On Omega Earth...
Fade groaned as the world pulled her back into consciousness. Her head was pounding and felt like ice at the same time, a nightmarish version of a brain freeze. The iridescent lights of the med bay invaded her eyes and assaulted her retinas, pulling a raspy Turkish profanity from her throat.
"You’re awake." She heard to her left. As her senses returned she felt a squeeze on her hand, and finally confirmed with her still hazy eyes that Neon was sitting next to her. "How are you feeling?"
Fade attempted to assess her physical state and could only groan in response. After a few seconds she managed to give a short assessment.
“Like I just got hit by a fucking bus.” Fade mumbled while fully turning her head to face Neon. She was expecting a lot of things on Tala’s face when she laid eyes on it, relief, worry, and love were a few that came to mind. So when she was met with a frown, the Dream Seer had to do a double take. With her eyesight coming back, the bedridden agent could definitely tell that Neon was frowning. Unsurprisingly confused, Fade asked, “Did I do something? Besides almost getting curb stomped by my dimensional twin?”
Again, Fade was expecting a more heartfelt response than the cold semi-accusation she was met with. “I don’t know. You tell me.” Neon said, eyes giving Fade a glare she didn’t even know the Duelist could muster.
“Uhhh. What do you mean?” Fade asked honestly, confused as to why she was back to being interrogated by the protocol.
“You know what I mean. She almost beat you to death Fade. With her bare fucking hands. You had to have done something to royally piss her off like she was. If she was anything like you, I’d say you did nothing short of killing her family.” Neon said with a cold finality, not in the mood for circular answers.
Across from her, Fade’s throat tightened like a noose had just been slung around her head. She suddenly understood what Neon was asking, and her girlfriend unfortunately was spot on with her remark. While normally she had an excellent poker face, the Initiator knew full well that her lover could see right through it. That skill wouldn’t be needed though, because Neon’s face morphed from hard to horrified in a matter of seconds when she saw the guilt flash onto Fade’s face. “You didn’t.”
No response.
“Hazal.”
Silence
“Hazal tell me you didn’t do that.”
Quiet as death, then a whisper.
“I can’t lie to you Tala.”
Screeching ripped through the medbay as Neon stood up and shot her chair out from under her. “What the hell did you do?!” She shouted, now afraid of the woman that sat across from her.
Fade bowed her head in shame, not for what she did, but for not being honest with Tala. Looking to salvage what she could of the situation she explained. “I lost someone on our earth, very, very dear to me. I was upset, with nothing else to do but take out my anger and depression on terrorists and lowlifes. That was going to be it, just the same vicious cycle of death. Then Brimstone approached me and filled me in on the details of our neighboring Earth. I joined the protocol on the condition I could use the portal for a solo operation.”
Looking up from her lap, Fade internally cringed at the sight of Neon backed into a table with her hand over her rapidly beating heart. Taking a breath she continued, “I found him Tala. Alive, well, and none the wiser that I wasn’t his Hazal… I went to leave with him… but Ytris showed up… tried to stop me… so I did what I had to.” She finished, voice quivering not out of guilt, but out of what Neon’s reaction would be. Like a gunshot to the heart, Fade almost stopped breathing when she saw the tear streaks running down Neon’s face.
The Duelist was barely composed, a hand over her mouth was shaking and discharging electricity, while the other white knuckled the table she was against. The only audible sound in the room was Neon’s labored breathing from her emotionally charged state.
Looking to break the tension, Fade gently called Neon’s name.
“No!” Neon screamed before Fade could finish. It felt like another physical blow to the Dream Seer, who jumped at the sudden outburst. “Don’t… don’t call me that anymore… I can barely stomach looking at you right now…” she said before turning to leave, which earned an immediately regretted call from Fade. “Shut up! I don’t want to here it… I can’t even fathom how you could do something like that… I know we all have done the worst… killed, tortured, fucking whatever… we’re all sinners in here…” Neon said in the doorway before turning to Fade one last time. “But Fade… you’re a fucking monster.”
With that final blow, Neon left, brushing past a startled Sage who was just coming to check in on Fade. Not wanting to further pester a bad wound, she silently went over to Fade and did an assessment of the damage. After some time, Fade croaked out “Sage… hand me my phone please.” The healer obliged, bidding her farewell before leaving the room.
Fade felt hollow, like she just woke up from a particularly bad night with her Radiance. She robotically swiped through her programs until she found an encrypted messaging server. If Neon was going to leave her high and dry, she should at least enjoy what she had…
U.H:Eyletmez; I love you so much. No matter what I would fight heaven and earth for you. Don’t ever forget it…