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 Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 9:46 pm
one push
He's used to seeing her battered and bruised and tired and bloody, but he'll never get used to seeing her close to panicking. He takes a breath.
"Okay," Jack says calmly, his arms around her in their usual curl. He doesn't pry Chel off; they always did seem to communicate better when they weren't looking at each other. "Tell me what happened."
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 9:55 pm
revengeance 2.0
It hurt to breathe before Chris forced his weight on him; now it's like trying to breathe through only a straw, with every little stretch of his lungs a new agony. Jack sputters underneath him, half trying to get air, half trying to rid of the s**t clogging his throat. (Rain, spit, mud, blood.) Owain is fearful, which is a first; normally concern and quiet acceptance are his emotional states after a loss.
He strains himself trying to force the totem back into a sword, but the armlet remains steadfastly clamped around his wrist.
She's a person. One that loves you, for some inexplicable goddamn reason.
"I ******** know that," Jack hisses, and he doesn't know if he's answering Chris's earlier sentiment or his present one or both. He struggles for breath. "It was for her own good. For...our own good. Your cousin's a ******** liability like this, and...you shouldn't be blind to the risks of letting her go ******** amok when some thing could possess her."
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 9:58 pm
one push
"I pushed her. I ********' killed her." Jack knew the details of the mission, she'd told him as much before going. A two person scouting mission in Europe with the last person she'd wanted to be partnered with.
Without realizing it, her hands began to shake on Jack's back. He smells like burnt chicken and it's something she wishes she could savor instead of of fearfully cling to. "I told them suicide, but they're gonna find out. There's no way-"
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 10:06 pm
revengeance 2.0
He wants to scream in Jack's face until his voice is raw and he can't breathe anymore. He's panicking, Ava is telling him as much. This is panic and anxiety and anger and no outlet except the man between his knees.
"Don't you ******** act like this was for me! Don't you dare ******** pin this on my own good. They're going to ******** kill her you worthless piece of s**t!" His eyes are wild and unfocused, like he can't quite see Jack despite the face that they're inches from each other's faces. "If she's such a ******** liability they're going to kill her and I'm going lose her again."
He lowers the blade slowly, but not to his side. He lowers it until the edge of Ava's blade is pressed against Jack's windpipe, just short of splitting skin. The pressure is so sickeningly satisfying. "You're the real liability, playing with other hunters' lives."
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 10:29 pm
one push
Something in him began to fall, distantly. Not break, not crack, not chip away or disappear, but simply fall, a swooping sensation much like missing a step on the stairs. He had known about the mission, but--
But they're gonna find out.
Their little disconnect is thrown out the window. Jack crouches until he's closer to her level and takes Chel's head into his hands, his fingers cold as ever. They're steady, unlike hers. They always have been, silently telling her breathe.
"Why?" he asked quietly.
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 10:37 pm
revengeance 2.0
The added pressure is enough to leave him gasping for breath. There's no shield left to save him. Stay quiet, Owain warns him, stay quiet, he pleads with him. But Jack doesn't believe Chris would have the nerve to go through with it; too many consequences might not bother him, but it would be another blow to Chel.
It's a struggle to suck in breaths without forcing his neck flush against the blade enough to draw blood. His body is screaming out in pain and it takes everything in him not to just give in and yell.
"They won't," he rasps, even though he doesn't know for sure. 80% of him is sure Chris won't do it; 20% of him speaks out anyway in mild desperation, in fear that he's wrong. "Her condition...they'd want to study her...I'm on the team, I can make sure she won't."
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 10:55 pm
one push
"I'm sorry Jack, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. Maybe I did I don't know." She puts her hand over one of the ones on the side of her face.
< Does it really matter? >
"I hate her so much." Words she's never really cared to say bubble up; Tenebrae's right- what does it matter now? "Everything she did to you, to Nevada, to me." The order stated was important. "I just- I just saw the cliff and I thought- I thought-" She's in hysterics because this time she can't ask Jack to fix it. Self destructive should have been written on her forehead but this time she's stepped too far.
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 11:11 pm
one push
Breathe, he keeps trying to tell her, an automated message that's entirely hypocritical, because the more Chel's words sink in, the more difficult it becomes for him to remember how to breathe himself. Don't get overridden now, don't get overwhelmed. Think. He drops Lina's death (and it's explicitly labeled a suicide as well) into a folder for later and focuses on Chel.
"Okay." He's thinking aloud as he pulls her back in and allows her the safety in his shirt. There's a slight pause between the two syllables, a small blip as he tries to quickly catch up to their situation. "She had a history of self harm and threatened suicide before. It's very possible she decided to let herself die on the mission." He's reasoning, trying to find comfort in some logical explanation other than the truth, because if Lina gets to take this away from him too even in death, he doesn't know, he just doesn't ******** know.
"I made pasta," he adds offhandedly. I can fix this. Eat, sit down, breathe.
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 11:18 pm
one push
It really does suck.
It sucks because this isn't even unexpected. She wishes it had more impact, but every hunter dies young. Every hunter ******** up somewhere along the way and died a young, pathetic death. Chel couldn't even say she'd fought a monster. She'd pushed a defenseless girl off a cliff.
Stormy had jumped, because she had decided to let herself die on this mission.
"Don't let them take me," she found herself thundering. Her shaken frame became a death grip. "Promise me, Jack." She sank against his body, unsure what else to do. His messages of fixing and breathing didn't fall on deaf ears. "What about Gale? He'll go lookin'." Her face went pale, alarmed. "Evan."
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Posted: Thu May 21, 2015 11:44 pm
one push
His expression tightened as she brought them up, and he was glad she couldn't see it. "No-one's going to take you from me," he promised as he pulled her up, pressing his lips to her hair. "No-one. We can figure this out, Chel, I promise." (He's already thinking: Evan has a past record, Gale can take it out on him, they'll need Chris for extra security for a while, maybe Abbi Finn and Ripley in rotation.) It wasn't a matter of trying or of possibilities, it was simply a matter of fact as far as Jack was concerned.
"I swear," he repeated emphatically as he hugged her tighter, realizing that the ugly sensation rising in his chest is true, unadulterated fear.
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 9:51 am
one push
"If they find out you guys know and yer protectin' me you'll probably get in trouble too," she mused. "Not that that would stop you ... Stay safe, Hawthorn." As this point that meant stay alive.
She doesn't like talking about herself as though she's dead (which she already is). It's a weird limbo between living and dead; caged. "I heard Rep did somethin' way back when ... He's still here," she added hopefully. They could do this.
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 10:26 am
revengeance 2.0His entire expression shuts down. He's sick of the lies, of the assurances that this was best that everything is going to turn out okay. He's sick of this ******** bullshit that Jack was going to do anything other than ******** up their lives even more. That's all Jack had been doing - ******** up their lives. ******** up Chel's life.
"You should stop lying to people," he hisses, finally putting more pressure on his weapon. The sharp edge cuts through Jack's throat easily, and when it hits the jugular it's a bloodbath. Red soaks through the pristine white of Chris's coat, turning it pink, then red, then near-black. Soaking through fabric to skin to very soul, turning it violently black.
This is better. This is a solution.
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 11:32 am
jaeger tech
The command tower is lit up like a Christmas tree and every available tech is on hand, rushing in a well organized panic. They're already suited up, but they haven't been sent out yet, and Chris wants to be where the more accurate news is. That means watching Jack's stupid face as his brows draw closer and closer together while he furiously taps away at a multitude of screens.
Chimera Ranger was sent out only minutes ago on a category four, and they've already lost contact. It's not a first, and it probably won't be the last, but Chris works himself up every time something even goes slightly wrong with one of Dawson's missions. With the danger level so high, he's ready to punch something to make himself feel better.
"Why haven't they sent us out yet?" he asks. It's mostly targeted at Chel, but it's not like she'd know the answer either.
He's about to chew someone out but a nerd behind the desks shouts.
"Chimera Ranger's down! Chimera Ranger's down!"
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 11:48 am
jaeger tech
Chel is saying something under her breath to Jack with a hand on his shoulder when Chris speaks up. Seeing as she already has her suit on, she can only bump her helmet into the side of his head before the hand slips off his shoulder and she returns to her cousin's side.
"'Cause they waitin' for prime time to send in the badass-"
The sirens should have come as more of a surprise. There should have been tears and the world should have shattered, but instead all it gets out of Chel is a muttered, "Damn." Like she'd just lost in a video game or turned the wrong direction while driving.
Her eyes follow the blue line up Chris' black suit to his face, shrouded behind the thin blueish visor. "S'go time."
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2015 12:02 pm
jaeger tech
His chest constricts and he lets out one, long, shaky breath, but that's all he gets. There's no time to get upset and have a breakdown in the middle of command. That'll come later.
He gives one unsteady nod and knocks on Jack's desk lightly as they're ushered through the elevator doors.
I'm bringing her back.
It's impossible not to feel small as they walk through the Shatterdome, but there's an incredible power in looking up at the pink and blue mismatched metal of Rogue Soldier. People buzz around them, doing last minute adjustments to their suits, tightening Chel's pink visor, making sure all the connection slots on Chris's back are in working order, the works. But Chris is in his own mind, preparing for the drift. He locks away his turmoil tight, because he can't lose himself or Chel in his own head.
They're locked into place in the head of Rogue Soldier, hooked up to a million different pieces that Chris can barely name. He looks over to Chel tries for a smile, but it just looks grim and determined. There's nothing he can say that she won't know in a moment anyways.
"Ready?" Jack's voice in their helmets.
They reply in unison "Ready."
Pilot-to-pilot connection, engage, the computer trills, and their headspaces meld into one.
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