Chapter Text
The gruel and mud of Vineta’s upturned soil caked the gutters and destroyed flowerbeds littering the city, it had been a few months since they had staged the newest operation against the Empire now, it had been… interesting.
Her hazy vision absently took in the faces of three other NKCR’. Hypatia glanced back-- were her eyes always that colour? Today had been tiring—and smiled at her, one hand loosely swung from the stock of her SMG, other hand wedged under the semi-vertical foregrip.
“Carinthia, you alright there?”
She nodded, the breeze didn’t feel cold, even though she wasn’t in her usual tan fatigues. Why was it so empty? The towering apartment buildings seemed to be built for the heat, open windows and sunshades out on the sides of the street.
A distant whistle filled her ears, Ideqo looked up, sharing a concerned glace with Hypatia, they turned and glanced at Carinthia, she matched their gaze before looking up, the sky looked normal- a single blur sparkled as it came further and further into focus.
Dread filled her, she turned- to the Gestalt who had been recently added to an admittedly unusual squad. The munition landed as she shoved the man into a stumbling run.
Fire filled the street, nausea from impact and memory washed over her, the pained sound from the man in front of her faded into the back of her thoughts, the world was painted with a white flash- intense yellow, when it came into focus, she could have sworn that sand coated her skin and armour.
The back of her rationality managed concern beyond her own life, something was wrong, she stumbled up and walked back for the other of her cadre, checking them as she approached. Hypatia’s face looked normal, so did Ideqo’s, Vick—
“Vick?”
…
“Vick!”
Hypatia and Ideqo vanished, gone from her mind. She reached for Vick, she couldn’t have been out of arms reach, but her hands swayed halfway between them at full reach, not conforming to the scale of the world around them.
She took a longer step, but again, she fell short.
“Vick! Turn around!”
She began to run, remaining out of reach still—Vick wasn’t walking any faster, glancing around ahead of her, Carinthia managed a glance at her face- normal, too normal, a regular NKCR, devoid of the shallow scratch on her right cheek, she had teased her for it before. Her eyes were mottled marble grey.
“V-Vick?”
There was nothing in the air now, oppressive heat replacing the draft, the tarmac bubbled- her feet burned, black tar sticking to it worse than the soil. Dragging herself up by a bollard she stumbled onto the concrete sidewalk, the loud cracks of armoured hoofs on the pedestrian path echoed the empty city.
Vick didn’t look back, walking on the black substance as if it were not popping and spitting, it began to spill onto the concrete, ichor dragging at her legs- she screamed the only thing she could.
“Vick- Vick Don’t Leave Me!”
Vick didn’t turn around, fire exploded across the street again- scorching heat washing over her, sand splashed over her face- not sand- dirt and dust. She crumbled. Someone shoved her as she lashed out a hand towards Vick-
Someone grabbed her- yelling, glassy streets shifted sickeningly like adjusting a kaleidoscope, Ideqo was jolting her shoulder-
“Carin- Carin! Move!”
Already, the world was coming into focus. The street was desolate, the tarmac was fine—if charred, a pale faced Gestalt soldier stared at her from a few paces down the street, still shielding their face from the heat that the three NKCR ignored, not daring to approach as Ideqo and Hypatia knelt by their Squad Lead.
“Carinthia… it was just a near miss, incendiary- it’s alright.”
Hypatia’s eternally calm tone was slightly uneven, but did well enough in grounding the bewildered Replika. She glazed over the Gestalt, snapping her head to look up and down the street even as she pushed off the wall Ideqo had apparently tossed her into. An uncertain muttered stammer coming instead of the firm demand she intended.
“Where’s Vick-?”
Both her cadre members shared a glance, uncomfortableness, unease, dread. Ideqo spoke, slowly, as if pacifying a wild dog.
“Carin, Vick isn’t here.. Remember?”
She blinked at both of them, not here? Ridiculous, she could just feel for-
She could-
Where was it?
Why was it so quiet?
Where was Vick.
Time seemed to grind down for a moment; Carinthia still heard the mutter of Ideqo.
“I told you we should have told them she was- “
“She just turned Back into literal incendiary barrage to check on us, we owe her- “
“Vick wouldn’t have held back- “
A distant screech pounded against her skull, not echoing- raking down her thoughts, it wasn’t real. It was in her head, just like the thundering migraine.
“Carinthia?”
“Carin?”
She stumbled back, turning to look at the Gestalt, standing right where Vick had been half a minute earlier. It was wrong, all of it was wrong.
“No- she’s not-”
The pity in both pairs of irises hurt certainty added. This wasn’t a bad dream. Vick hadn’t ever been on that street, Vick had never been on this patrol. She wouldn’t fix it all, nobody to smile and produce a solution. She was the one who was meant to fuck it up-
Spattered sand, salt in her mouth, the crack of gunfire, Vick coughing- falling back into Carinthia.
A dark night not long ago when she had cried, knowing full well that Ideqo and Hypatia should have told the company KNCR about it, and that they wouldn’t do it anyways.
The gaping rents in her memory cleared like wiping down a monitor display. She clutched her head,
She could feel it all crashing down, the empty hole in her mind only rivalled by the unfamiliar cold gnawing in her chest, she was hyperventilating despite not needing to. Crashing into a wall, a building noise rebounded through her brain- everything that made her-her was burning.
Vick was gone.
Vick was gone.
Vick was.
Vick.
.