Veteran. Dagny wasn’t sure she knew what the word meant, but asking for an explanation now seemed pointless. There were more important things than giving Dagny an English lesson, like what they were here for just then. She didn’t know what to say to his admission, and hoped that the way her lips curved upwards was enough to convey to him her admiration. “Maybe we do all missions.” She said, head tilting in the direction of a voice in the near distance; it belonged to a young girl, and made her lips pressed together into a tight line. “This way, the little people have less chance of dying.” Many kids died fighting back home, and it had not affected her then badly as it did now. It was wrong to send kids to war. Dagny’s words made her think of Dom’s sister, and she bowed her head out of silent respect, fingers slowly curling around the handle of the knife she held. A gentle hum left her at his next words, her mouth gently dragging up on one side. “Dagny trusts Dom much with life. This and maybe Zoe would come for Dom if Dagny died.” The last part was said with a slight laugh, as if she was trying to make light of things. Dagny did trust Dom, but she knew that if she ended up badly hurt, or dead, then it would be her fault alone. For not being good enough.
As the dossier was read out, Dagny’s face hardened, and she turned to stand at Dom’s side, listening in silence. She felt eyes on her as her friend conversed with another voice, and tilted her head in a couple kids’ direction. They were huddled together, staring at the blind giant, not that she could tell. Still, they averted their eyes as she turned, almost as if they were afraid that she’d get angry at them for gawking. It merely made her brows furrow as she returned her attention to the mission at hand. Dagny nodded in understanding just as Dom openly refused to kill any victims. It was a difference between them. Dagny was much more willing to put an end to someone who could not be saved, whereas Dom wanted to try. She wondered if her lack of hesitancy was a good thing. “Come, Dom.” She said eventually, placing a large hand to a thick shoulder, and stepping towards the vibrations of an opening portal. “We will go ahead of others. Clear path, if there is path to be cleared.” As she patted her companion’s back for a final time, she smiled grimly, and stepped through the portal.
Dom clenched his fist, trying to drown out the anger threatening to overcome him at the idea of young kids, tortured and experimented on, being left to die. He wouldn’t... no he couldn’t allow something like that to happen. He would follow these missions, he would do what he was told, but he would not sacrifice what little of his humanity he had left.
Dimly he heard Dagny from his side, and he nodded curtly, swallowing a lump of his anger down. He grabbed a few last weapons, clipping them to the light armor attached to his upper torso, before following after her. He never could get used to the temporary feeling of weightlessness that always accompanied a portal, which was followed by a sickening sense of his stomach falling out of his body. Honestly the transportation made him feel sick, but he knew how to suck it up, just like he could suck up the fighting by this point.
When he stepped through, he took a few seconds to take stock of their surroundings. Luckily they had been portalled into a deserted area. It seemed to be a long hallway, dark and barren with nothing but the antiseptic smell of a hospital burning down his throat. Dom blinked a few times to adjust to the dim, artificial lighting, before looking around to find Dagny.
“If I’m right, if we head down that way,” Dom said pointing towards their left, before his hand dropped limply to his side. Walking to her, he put his hand on his shoulder and faced her in the right direction “... then it should lead into the lab area, and hopefully beyond that would be the dorms. We’re in a low-lit hallway now, completely barren, no cameras even as far as I can tell.” Dom wrinkled his nose, finding that last comment weird.
“Though that seems suspicious to me, so keep on your toes, ok?”
