[Rescue AU]

[bothbarrels]

North's facing off with his sister when he realizes it. South's not going to be persuaded to switch sides with him. And Wash—Wash has been left behind, helpless, disoriented, and without any clue what's transpiring as the ship goes down. North reluctantly leaves his sister behind and as the ship loses gravity he pushes himself off the walls, diving forward to get back to the medical ward, and finds himself tumbling downward as the ship goes down.

Gravity kicks in, and he quits floating, making a jarring landing outside the recovery ward door. "Wash?" he calls, entering the room with caution.

Comments

[goddamngrenades]

"Fuck. Okay. Hang on I think we can get out without wasting ammo-" He keys in the safest place he can think of that's not this damn ship and fires it up, locks it down, and starts the clumsy process of lifting off from a pile of other pelicans. It's not easy. There is jostling, and swearing. And more than a few 'i KNOW d's thrown in when trajectory needs to be altered or 'warning nose is not level'. As long as he's not hearing shit about being locked onto or the hull compromised, he doesn't care.

"Hang on to something-" They're up, they're free, and they're OUT right before it all crashes down. Barely. Jesus.

[bothbarrels]

His expertise as a gunner, such as it is, turns out not to be needed. He straps himself in belatedly when he almost gets thrown out of his seat and watches the radar for anyone in pursuit. There's a small chance the ship itself could fire on them, but evidently the crash has thrown everyone too much for a loop for anyone to take the initiative on doing that.

[goddamngrenades]

"We clear?" He hopes they'er clear. They've got enough fuel for a short trip and he's scrambling to think of what to do when they land. He and Tex hadn't exactly planned this far ahead.

[bothbarrels]

"Looks like it. Nothing on radar, anyway." What he can see out the windshield from here isn't inspiring a lot of optimism. White, white, as far as he could see. "York, tell me you can see anything but glacier somewhere."

[goddamngrenades]

"...there's a base a few miles away. We can refule there, stock up, make our next move." Maybe? Hopefully. Pretty sure, at least, that there should be SOMETHING there. It's one of the sim trooper setups so there's bound to be something.

[bothbarrels]

"Good. I'm going to go check on Wash. Keep it level."

He goes back into the troop compartment and finds Wash still slumped over his crash bar. North pulls up Wash's vitals on his HUD—he's unconscious but okay. So North returns to the cockpit and climbs back into the gunner's seat. "Everything checks out okay. He's out like a light though. I'm going to keep an eye on his vitals."

[goddamngrenades]

"Can do." It shouldn't take that long to get where they're going- no one seems to be in pursuit. Clocking into autopilot and putting D in charge of watching everything gives him time to sit back and think about what he's just done.

Treason. He's just committed treason.

Fuck.

"Sounds good. If he's roughed up I can pop the healing unit over."

[bothbarrels]

"I don't think he is, he's just...out."

[goddamngrenades]

"It's been a stressful day." For everyone. That's kind of an understatement.

[bothbarrels]

"Heh. You don't have to tell me that."

[goddamngrenades]

"We're locked in." He can take a moment to turn and pop his helmet off. He needs air. He needs a moment to just breathe. "How you holding up?"

[bothbarrels]

"Other than freaking out that I left my sister behind?" But she'd made her choice. Didn't make it any easier to bear.

[goddamngrenades]

"Yeah that- how are you handling that? There was not talking to her?"

[bothbarrels]

"She didn't want to hear it." It hurt, the fact that she'd turned her back on him, threatening to find someone to turn him in to. "I had to get out of there before she did something rash."

[goddamngrenades]

"Christ. I'm sorry." He can't imagine what it'd be like to have that happen to him. To deal with that.

[bothbarrels]

He just fiddles with the controls in front of him for a moment. "I just expected her to trust me."

[goddamngrenades]

"...I'd hoped the same of Carolina." But where could he stand up against her father? He can't blame her for her loyalty.

[bothbarrels]

York can't see his face but North's gone tight-lipped. Carolina's loyalty was a lot easier to explain. He could only suppose South was afraid of reprisals should she leave. "I'll have to work through it later," he finally says.

[goddamngrenades]

"...we'll get somewhere safe to sit and process soon. I know the kid's probably going to need time. All that screaming..." God. He didn't envy Wash.

[bothbarrels]

"He seemed okay this time when he first woke up, but somehow I knew that wasn't going to last."

[goddamngrenades]

"We'll have a few hours. Then we plan our next move." Whatever that ends up being.

[bothbarrels]

"We hobbled them, at least." But the Director wasn't one to waste any time.

[goddamngrenades]

"Don't think the MOI is gonna be flying anytime soon." A beat. "They'll be looking for three of us. It's not ideal but if we split up maybe we'll have a better shot of keeping under the radar."

[bothbarrels]

North shakes his head. "Mm, I think Wash is going to need both of us. One to keep an eye on him and one to keep an eye out there."

[goddamngrenades]

"...that's fair. After what happened- the screaming, whatever Epsilon did in his head...i'm surprised he's this coherent." But the kid's always been tough. Bounced back from most injuries without saying much of anything.