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This was supposed to be an easy mission. This was supposed to be an easy mission, they weren’t supposed to be confronted by heroes. They weren’t supposed to be cornered. Nemesis ducks under a punch and slaps the hero on the knee. Sapnap goes down with a strangled cry as his leg breaks. The exact wound Nihachu has healed the previous day. Niki grimaces. She doesn’t like hurting the heroes, no matter how much she hates how she isn’t allowed to actually do anything, as a healer.
Protesilaus twirls his heavy battle ax in a large circle and ends up with his back pressed against Niki’s own in a move that would seem coincidental to anyone who doesn’t know Technoblade. He is the only one who knows of her second identity as the heroes’ main healer. The only one who knows about the duality of her powers.
“We can get you out of here.”
An offer to get her an opening, to make sure she doesn’t have to fight the heroes she works with. To get a break before the heroes are sure to call her in at the end of the night, no matter that she officially doesn’t work today. Her amount of extra hours should be able to get her a full day off of work. Not that heroes get breaks. Nemesis shakes her head and ducks low so Protesilaus can jump over her and bring his ax down against Dream’s sword.
Zephyrus is off somewhere fighting Puffy and if Niki didn’t know how good of a fighter the hero is, she might have worried. Phil has a tendency to get carried away, worse than Techno. Especially since while Techno likes fighting, Phil likes destruction. Zephyrus is known for throwing explosives at anything he dislikes. She can’t see where Lethe is, but Niki just has to trust that Ranboo can take care of themself. Phil wouldn’t have brought them into the Syndicate if he didn’t trust them to be able to do so, especially with the constant training all of them perform.
Then someone screams. It’s not a fully human scream, more screeching than that. And Niki knows, with a sudden feeling as if the bottom of her stomach dropped out, that this was Ranboo. The only Enderian on the battlefield. Niki leaves The Fox with a quick jab to his throat and hurries to find Ranboo. She can’t see them, but she has to find them, something went wrong. She ducks under one of NotFound’s arrows and rolls out of the way of a sword when she sees Protesilaus.
Techno’s is facing the Warden, forcing the hero to step back when Protesilaus’ ax strains against his trident. Niki doesn’t care for that. All she can focus on is Lethe’s prone body, laying on the ground just behind Techno. On the complete opposite of the battlefield. She locks eyes with Zephyrus, who nods once. Then Phil is in the air and Nemesis is jumping up, letting her friend grip her arms tightly and swirl her around once, twice, before he throws her.
Niki tucks her limbs close and slams against King full-force, knocking her down and the air out of Niki’s lungs. She doesn’t give herself time to recover, just breaks Eret’s arm as she scrambles up and over towards Ranboo. Shortly after, Zephyrus lands on her other side, him and Protesilaus forming the best protective barrier that two people can. He could have flown while holding her, but carrying anyone makes him slow down and Niki has seen Phil throw even Techno across the training grounds once, so this is the fastest way.
She doesn’t pay attention to what her fellow Syndicate members are doing, just dropping to her knees next to Lethe. The youngest out of all four of them. There is a stab wound in their side, steadily leaking blood and definitely lethal if she doesn’t do something about it right now. Warden has to have known that this would be fatal, and he still did it. Heroes aren’t supposed to kill.
Niki tries to catch Techno’s eye, but he’s busy. He trusts her to take care of the situation, to know what the best course of action is. Phil trusts her too. Phil, who doesn’t even know that she is Nihachu, that she can heal people. And still, he is ready to face what must be just about every big hero in the city simply to allow her the chance to act. Because he trusts her. Niki looks down at Ranboo. She can’t see their face through the mask, even as she is applying pressure to the wound, but she can tell they’re looking at her. All of them trust her so much. Trust her to make the right decision.
If Niki heals Lethe here, everyone will know that she is Nihachu. The heroes will kick her out. Worse yet, they will know her civilian identity. She will never know peace again. There is warm blood on her hands and Niki wants to scoff. As if she has ever known peace. She has made this decision when she joined the Syndicate. With every time she was woken in the middle of the night to patch some hero up. With every day she couldn’t relax because she expects to be called in the very next second despite officially having the day off. With every fight she was told to stay out of.
Nemesis takes a deep breath, and then a soft golden glow surrounds her hands. Protesilaus doesn’t react in the slightest, the only reaction Zephyrus gives is a slight twitch of his wings, something she only notices because she knows Phil. He is curious, but he trusts her. They both do. Lethe is unconscious by now, but that’s fine. Niki can save them. She has made her decision months ago.
The light grows brighter as Nihachu pushes more and more of her power into Lethe’s body, as Nemesis gathers her unconscious teammate close, as Zephyrus and Protesilaus step closer to her by pure instinct. Niki hands Ranboo off to Techno, when the heroes, who stood frozen to watch her work, speak. Or, well. Puffy does. She steps forward, seemingly fighting with herself. Niki wonders if she wants to reach out to her. They have always been close.
“Nihachu?”
Niki stares at the heroes. The heroes that were willing to kill her teammate, her friend. The heroes who demand so much of her but who never listen. Who never look at her, who see her useful for nothing but her powers. Healing powers are rare, especially ones as strong as her own. Niki looks at those heroes and feels nothing.
“My name is Nemesis.”
She turns around and immediately starts sprinting off after where Techno is already running, one arm clutching Ranboo close as he takes one of his potions with the other and immediately speeds up even more. Phil is waiting for her, jumping into the air as soon as he sees her approach. Nemesis jumps over the too-large gap towards the next rooftop, trusting Zephyrus to catch her. He does. Protesilaus is jumping next to them, faster and further than any human should be. Lethe is cradled carefully in his arm, their side supported even with the wound gone.
Nemesis runs with her teammates and knows that she made the right choice. It helps that, through the mask, she couldn’t see Puffy’s eyes.