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The alarms were blaring again.
Normally, this wasn't a major concern. False alarms and drills were mandatory and not uncommon within the Armory Palace.
It was simply standard procedure and a given, since the researchers were working with highly volatile concentrations of energy after all.
But if you asked Mitya, this was a rather unlucky situation–or lucky if you asked him maybe 6 hours later–because the lab wasn't exploding from his experiments but rather a organized operation of a local gang, assisted by various Fatui Soldiers.
Researchers scattered for cover, mostly the ones who had nothing to their name besides their formal education and experience. The ones who held visions were caught nearly immediately, reprehended quickly and neutralized.
The ones who held Stellar Linchpins though, those were the real threat. Able to channel energy without restriction and difficult to subdue, they were targeted quickly.
Mitya found himself surrounded, back pressed against a metal side of a railing while the alarm blared in his ears as the automatic security system rang out due to the destruction caused to the main machinery. Multiple people, some masked, some in the Fatui uniform of all ranks. None he recognized.
Mitya's hands blazed with electricity, glowing slightly in the dim room. He could paralyze several, maybe a few would die from the shock alone.
Before that, instinct set in, forcing his body to jerk to the side as the scarf detected the threat before his mind could keep up. A dart landed on the metal ground, piercing it as a dose of some liquid emptied itself.
His mind still reeled about what could've been but his body was off balance now.
An assailant lunged forward, intent on grabbing his arms to pin them down.
Mitya moved out of the way, side stepping the attempt. His scarf helped him, grabbing the railing and forcing himself to stay upwards. A glint of a blade had Mitya scramble away quickly. The scarf covered his neck but it sliced through it, hanging on barely by a thread in the attempt.
The knife landed somewhere out of view.
It's at this moment that Mitya wished he paid more attention to physical training for Fatui members even if he wasn't technically one at all.
Okay, Valeriy was one and he went to watch his practice and stuff but didn't need to know that.
Another intruder went for one of his arms and yanked it out in time before another could grab his other.
A gush of wind past his face as he dodged the next knife. There's vision holders among them.
But they didn't need to go that far. A large figure tackled him from behind, pushing him down to the hard ground and knocking all the air in his lungs out.
Mitya struggled to catch his breath as more hands wrapped around his arms and legs. The pressure was what made it worse. His fingers could hardly move, his shoulders couldn't so much as shift without resistance.
But something in his mind knew that he wouldn't die. They wanted him alive. They wanted him alive for something. His eyes found their way back to the dart filled with the mystery liquid, a sedative, if he had to guess. An anesthetic at worst.
A masked person stepped forward, a syringe in hand and black gloves. Their eyes sharpened as the other grunts pulled Mitya's sleeve up to reveal the veins of his forearm.
But as the hands could press any further, the sound of metal boots could be heard.
Several tens of soldiers, from the sound of it. were rushing into the facility.
But Mitya wasn't listening to them.
His ears were finely tuned to hear one specific person: Valeriy.
The sound of his cape, the boots, even the sparks of electro and the familiar shield in his hands as he ran.
The intruder holding his back was knocked over immediately, charged at with the shield. The weight on his back relieving the pressure on Mitya's lungs as he coughed out the rest.
A rush of wind knocked back the other assailants.
A gloved hand found Mitya's as his vision slowly returned to him. He hadn't noticed the blur before then.
"Are you okay?" Valeriy said, his voice a tint of worry and his face too stiff.
Mitya didn't trust his voice so he nodded.
Valeriy leaned Mitya to the railing's side, watching him steady himself for a moment before turning back to the intruders.
His eyes sharpened, his reflexes as a soldier took over. His men were securing the premises and the other resarchers and assistants who had fled. Some were in pursuit. But their one goal is clear: protect the researchers. At all cost.
Valeriy's eyes narrowed on the first of the men, the hidden vision on his waist peeking out from the side of his cloak.
Valeriy charged some electro to his hands, aiming mimicked thunder to them. Predictably, they used elemental energy to deflect it but the energies collided resulting in a smoke explosion, covering the vision of everyone in the area. He rushed forward with confidence, finding the first person a few steps in, still reeling from the explosion.
Valeriy knocked him out easily with his metal gauntlets. The next was just as simple, a well-aimed attack to the chest and stomach, had them doubling over, before a hit to the neck knocked them out cold.
He spotted the white cloak of the masked individual moving in the smoke and he charged forward, grabbing the person by the neck high up in the air.
The person's arms flailed helplessly as their throat closed up from gravity and Valeriy's strength holding him up. The syringe fell from the pocket, landing on to the metal floor with a 'tink'. His eyes narrowed at the liquid, the bright green a common drug to anyone who has trained in the Fatui for any number of years.
It was a crude imitation of a sedative, one much more unpolished and unofficial than the medically approved one from the Veche.
His hands grabbed the neck harder, until he could hear the person's body convulse and choke on their own spit. Valeriy dropped the body as it crumpled to the ground.
The smoke moved and Valeriy was back in battle again. Daggers, short and unsharpened, aimed at his exposed throat from two sides. Valeriy ducked low, grabbed their wrists and twisted them with ease. The daggers fall to the ground and Valeriy pulled their weight toward the ground, forcing their bodies to hit the ground with a ugly crack.
The smoke slowly cleared, Valeriy stood in the middle of it, without breaking a sweat or even breathing heavily.
The alarms were still going off but the lack of chaos made it sound more like one of their elementary fire drills than a serious Armory Palace invasion.
Over the noise, Valeriy could pick up Mitya's heavy breathing.
He was holding to the bars of the railing with shaky hands. His eyes somewhat glazed over, likely because of the drugs. He was curled in and strangely silent.
Valeriy walked over in three short strides and crouched down to Mitya's level.
He reached a hand out. "Are you…alright?"
That seemed to snap Mitya out of it. His eyes finding Valeriy's and blinked.
Mitya's mouth was dry. "No."
Valeriy nodded, understanding.
From where he stood, he surveyed the guards around the machinery. It seemed like most of the chaos was settled.
"Guards, report!"
From the corner of Valeriy's eye, he saw Mitya flinch hard but that would have to be secondary to the safety of the other researchers.
"Squadron 1, researchers secured." A loud voice reported. "Lead Researcher missing, sir. Copy."
Valeriy took a deep breath. "Lead Researcher of Project Mistiltein. Secured."
"Sqaudron 2, engineers of Project Mistiltein secured. Copy." Another voice echoed down a main tunnel.
"Affirmative." Valeriy responded.
Mitya watched the tension in Valeriy's shoulders, his brows creasing in the subtle way that only Mitya could pick out. He was leaning over the railing, right next to where Mitya was gripping his own sleeves until they wrinkled harshly despite the thick material.
When Mitya heard the distinct creak of the railing giving under Valeriy's weight is when his shadow finally fell back over him, his eyes shining with worry as he brushed a stray hair behind Mitya's ear.
"You're not okay." He simply said. Factly. Plainly. As if he was talking about the weather or his daily schedule.
But there was a hint of something Mitya could pick out. Whether it was still from the adrenaline rushing or the way that his mind was desperately grabbing on to any form of comfort, he wasn't sure at all.
But his silence said everything to Valeriy. He brought him close, the sharp gauntlet carefully curled on the small of his back and pulled Mitya closer to his chest.
It was always warm in the Armory Palace but Valeriy seemed to have the kind of warmth that radiated from him in a way that always silenced his mind. So he pulled Valeriy closer by his collar and buried his face into his chest and exhaled while his heart slowly calmed to a steady rhythm.
They stayed like that for a while.
They were barely acquaintances by this point. Valeriy was still busy with the paperwork of his official transfer to being Mitya's bodyguard. But that didn't really matter, did it?
He had saved him from certain death, or possibly a fate worse than one. The possibilities would be something they would both mull over in the years ahead, when the nights were long and the thoughts ran endlessly.
But it was at this moment, where everything felt like it settled into silence, that Mitya knew that Valeriy was more than just a tool assigned by Pierro. It was the first time in a long time that Mitya felt security in such an absolute way.
One of Valeriy's arm moved. Mitya pulled Valeriy closer.
"Five more minutes." Mitya mumbled.
He heard Valeriy sigh, whisper something incomprehensible under his breath. Yet the arm stayed around him and his heart beat remained a constant.