Fyi, the dividers are to indicate pov swaps! Bandit is used for fiona because I cant find one that fits for her :(
Also this might be a little rushed 😅 I hope its good enough!
Helios? Gone.
Jack? Gone, I hope.
Rhys and Sasha? Missing.
In my hand, I clutch my echo device. Sasha's signal was long dead. Only one that had a faint signal was supposedly Rhys.
I crawl through shrapnel and glass shards. Looking though every nook and crevice of the crash site for him, all while calling his name.
Then I spot him, in the heart of it all. Jack's office. He looks barely conscious, slumping to his knees.
I scream his name and run towards him. Not caring what catches my sides and scrapes my coat.
"Why did you leave me..."
Tears run down his dirty, snotty face. But I don't care as I hold his head in my hands. He looks a state. His arm is straight up missing. And his gorgeous blue eye is also gone.
"Rhys, I didn't! You have to believe-"
He slumps unconscious before I could finish my words.
Shit!
Ow
Everything hurts.
I open my eyes- eye, to a blurry mess.
I can just make out a blob of orange or brown pacing back and forth.
"Fiona?" I dont know why I said her name. Not like she would be all the way out here.
I lift my head up ever so slightly, my eye finally adjusting to the dim lighting.
It. It is her? She turns to look at me in shock before running to my side.
"Rhys! You're alive! I mean- you're up, about time sleepyhead."
She gives a weak smile and I flinch as she touches my shoulder.
"You! You left me to die up there!"
How am I supposed to know if she won't just kill me here? God damn bandits though and through.
"I didn't leave you, they took Sasha with them. I need to go find her!" Her fingers dig into my shirt.
"They? Who-" I coughs and sputter, my mouth dry. Her anger disperses into pity.
"Hey- relax Rhys, drink."
She pulls out a canteen from somewhere and presses it against my mouth.
I don't want to imagine what Pandora's water is sourced from-
She takes a deep breath before continuing.
"I didn't betray you. I took an escape pod."
I shake my head.
"But I saw the-"
She cuts me off.
"Finch and kroger took Sasha and Gortys with them. I got shot in the fucking hand!"
She holds a bloody bandaged hand to my face.
I grimace at the sight.
"How are you feeling?" She placed a hand on my forehead, only until now I realised a bandage was wrapped around my head.
"I've been better." I croaked.
"Sasha was like this when she killed for the first time. Though with alot less injury." She gave a little chuckle, remembering how simple it was back then. Pinching pockets of idiots who thought kids couldn't have the expertise to steal so silently.
"What does that have to do with anything." It sounded a bit harsher than I intended.
A beat of silence filled the room.
"You're shaken up."
"What happened back there? Did you lose your arm in the crash? Where's your eye?"
Taking a deep breath I explained the fight with Jack, having to remove my arm to stop him from strangling me, and then being forced to remove all my cybernetics to get him out of me.
"Dont you mean choking?"
"N-no thats-" I do not have to energy to explain the differences between that right now.
"Where are we anyways?" I only just realised I hadn't hallucinated everything and that I'm not still in the wreck of Helios.
"Inside of the Atlas base remember? Old haven."
"Yeah I remember. Did this place have beds?"
I look around the room. Looks strangely untouched for how old it is. Then again Athena and her murder spree all those years ago didnt give anyone the chance to find out about this place.
"No, that's why you're on a metal table."
"No wonder everything hurts" I get up into a sitting position.
"Do you... are you able to make yourself an arm?"
"If I had a schematic I should be able to. If we could also find t-"
"A yes would have sufficed." She snapped a little to quickly. Shes the most stressed I've seen her.
"...sorry."
"Are you able to still hack stuff?" I gesture to a computer I found nearby.
"Of course! didnt always have an echo-eye." He lit up a little, finally not looking like a pouting puppy.
"I'd offer you my spare eye but I lost it." He gave me a puzzled look but said nothing.
I turn around for just a second to only then hear him scream in pain.
Whipping back around because I can't leave this baby alone for a second it looks like he tried to stand.
"What's wrong?"
"My leg- i think somethings wrong."
Shit.
"Uh. Okay! I'll just carry you then." I quickly decide.
"You carried me all the way here?" He rests his hand on his injured leg.
"Yup. You're welcome. Im stronger than I look." I wink, I dont know why I did that.
Rhys scoffs playfully.
"I call bullshit on tha-"
I grabbed under his left arm and legs. Picking him up and carrying him with ease.
"Im sorry I couldn't hear you over how strong I am." His hair tickled my neck.
"Okay okay you made your point. Though I do think this is cheating without my arm."
I slowly move us to the computer. Grunting with every step. Yeah I lied about that. I mean i did carry him, but not that far. I had somehow found a vehicle nearby my crash pod.
I place him down in the chair.
"Thanks, you're an angel."
I resist the urge to punch his face and wipe the dust off the monitor.
"Get to hacking Hyperion."
Why did I say that. It's what I had said to him after we both got trapped under the shaft by sasha and Vaughn, and found a Atlas computer locked by a password.
"Sorry force of habit."
Rolling his eyes he moved the mouse around, trying to wake up the computer, at the same time kicking up all sorts of ancient dust.
"A password? Pssh. Easy."
He starts mashing at the keys. Doing all sorts of things i have never seen possible, actually. Alot of it seems useless.
"Or you could try the same password as last time?" I raise an eyebrow at him.
"I mean yeah that could work. Maybe."
He imputs the following words 'AtlasIsBetterThanYou1' and presses enter.
"You're kidding. THATS the password?" I burst out laughing.
After searching through a whole bunch of useless files we decide to split up. Fiona will search though the rooms and I'll stay on the computer to try to find anything of use.
I managed to find a floor plan for this sector, which Fiona is making use of, she had already raided a kitchen.
"If you can pull up any places that have canned food we should be good to stay here for a few days."
The con artist returned with some goodies.
Somehow, after all these years some food was still in date.
We dig in, mostly it was beans but it keeps us alive so I really can't complain.
