Work Text:
Arkady wakes suddenly, immediately taking stock of her surroundings.
She’s in a room, on a cot, and her head hurts. So does her arm. And her chest.
Things generally just hurt.
She swivels her head around, immediately on guard, there’s a man next to her, looking surprised, though thankfully– she clocks– unarmed. Unarmed and human. “Oh, hey! You’re awake. Um, Captain–” he turns, addressing a woman on the other end of the room talking to a—
A Dwarnian.
Arkady curls in on herself, wincing as she does. “Who— who the hell are you people?”
She uses that word loosely, still staring at the alien in the corner.
“Woah, hey, you’re okay,” the man tries to reassure her, the woman quickly makes her way towards her. The Dwarnian, thankfully, stays back.
“It’s okay,” the woman repeats. “There was a bombing in Hyris,” she explains slowly. “You were caught in a building collapse. My crew fished you out. We’re in a bunker outside the city.”
“That… doesn’t answer my question,” she hisses, eyes still on the Dwarnian.
“We’re… not soldiers,” she eventually settles on. “No one is going to hurt you. We want to help. With our… very limited medical knowledge.”
“What about them? ” she asks uncertainly.
“That’s Krejjh,” the man explains. “They’re my fiance.”
Arkady is beginning to wonder how hard she’d hit her head.
“Don’t worry, dude,” they speak up, still on the other end of the room. “You’re not in danger. We promise.”
“Where, um— where’s my team?” She tries not to sound afraid when she says that, but she
is.
She doesn’t remember the blast, but they’d been together before it— they
must
have been.
“We don’t know,” she answers. “You were alone in the building but… we can help you find them when the shelling stops. If you want.” She clears her throat. “I’m Sana. This is Brian and, like he mentioned, that’s Krejjh. Can we get you anything?”
Arkady hesitates. She doesn’t know these people, and she definitely doesn’t trust them, but it’s not like she trusts half her commanders either. She’s heard of free agents like them on the human side; it isn’t… completely out of the realm of possibility for a Dwarnian to be aligned with them.
And she’s unrestrained. And they’ve had plenty opportunity to hurt her if they wanted to.
“...Water. Would be nice. If you have it.”
Sana smiles. “Of course.”