Back in the Gateroom, Davis' voice through the voxes and radios comes through clear, though he's still not moving much more than the occasional twitch of his mouth.
Arketta asks, "Is he... is this now? Is it the demon, baiting us?" She looks to Angel and Luis, ready to follow their lead.
Angel grunts. "No, this is just that thing competing for the All Time World Champion Creepiest Fucking Thing Ever title. Eyes up, but we're not moving."
Davis hears Angel's response from the demon, which seems to Davis to become more curious by the second. *Jesus, what a time for trust issues. Okay, umm...* He thinks quickly. *I used the ansible to climb into the mind of the demon, which must be how I can talk to you. I'm here with my dead Afghan lover and...a friend. Say hi to everyone, Hadiya, Kao.*
Davis waits for them to quickly say hello, then continues. *Now, if this really was the demon trying to trick you, would it use such a stupid justification? Get the fuck over here, now.*
Arketta and Angel realize that pseudo-Davis' response was made even though they weren't using their comms. Whatever it is, it's close enough to hear them.
The creature continues to peer at Davis, then turns and slowly stalks back towards him, Kao, and Hadiya. It actually seems to be heading off towards one of the exits to the chamber they're in, away from the chem lights.
It almost seems like it's daring them to try something, but it's not going anywhere near Angel, Luis, and the rest of them for the moment.
Davis knows that if the demon manages to get out of range of the chem lights, they'll have a much more difficult time finding and killing it. "Angel, we need to move, now!" Davis shouts, and runs to block off the demon's path, hoping Hadiya and Kao follow him. "Get your asses over here! Kao, shove the thing back towards the light!" Once he gets in front of the beast, Davis opens fire, ripping off half a clip at it to slow it down.
Davis darts in front of the demon, dumping half a mag towards the thing. The creature leaps towards Davis but his gunfire buffets it like a tornado, knocking it down and rolling it under the onslaught. The physics of the entire situation is off - bullets don't knock a thing like that off course the way they just did. There's no time to ponder math problems, though. The demon doesn't get up; it's simply back on its feet and leaping for Davis. Kao slams into it and the demon and the Emperor tumble into the smooth contoured chamber wall. Teeth like buzzsaws rip into Kao and the creature's always-shifting claws tear at his arms and legs. Kao responds with a flurry of punches as he wrestles with the struggling beast. It's not enough, however, and the demon manages to shake the Emperor off. It drops flat as Hadiya fires, having waited for the Emperor to get clear. The walls show no impact from her missed shots.
---
Back in meatspace, the sudden shouting and barks of gunfire ring tinny in the team's earpieces. It dovetails with the real sounds of scratching, thumping, and wriggling coming from outside the chemlights' glow.
It would seem that Davis has somehow become the demon's Tyler Durden.
Luis, already on the fence, has his mind made up by the sound show. He checks his SMG and steps up. "That's it, I say we go. Strike while the iron's hot."
Luis snatches up a few of the chemlights as he advances towards the noise. Angel's on Luis' right, Ngawai and Arketta in a long staggered double file behind them. Arketta keeps watch in case the thing doubles back for Swims or Davis. There's a scrabbling of something trying to escape, of claws on hard floor, followed by a vaguely familiar voice screaming in pain over the radio.
---
Kao looks bad. The Emperor tries and fails to get back to his feet as the demon darts for the nearest chamber passage away from the sound of oncoming Delta. With a fierce unintelligible shout, Hadiya tackles the creature's rear legs. Her rifle forgotten, she tries to wrangle the beast back towards the nearing chemlights. The demon arcs around, escape forgotten for the moment, and lays into Hadiya with tooth and claw. She screams in pain but pulls the demon back from safety, flinging it towards the opposite wall. Hadiya collapses, her legs no longer supporting her.
Davis sees two chemlights arc into the demon's chamber, sees movement right behind. His rifle barks and the demon staggers back again.
---
Angel sees the creature stop short of escape, like some bizzare pantomime. Perhaps he's projecting emotions where there are none, but the demon snaps towards him and for a moment Angel feels his fear vanish, sees it in the green reflections off the beast's gloss-black skin instead, sees it in the way the thing thrashes, trying to get up.
It thought them weak and stupid. It thought they were prey.
Luis flashes back to what the undead Jonnoperest told him: If you leave, she dies first. He unconsciously interposes himself between the demon and Arketta as the chemlights reveal the demon's streamlined bulk ready to pounce.
It tried to use the List against him, not knowing that the List wasn't a weakness - it was what drives Luis. It didn't know about the second List, the list of people he's saved, the list of sacrifices he's made for the Team.
The demon moves. Bullets real and otherwise snap at its flanks as it rebounds off the near wall. Strobe-claws flash and its body elongates, trying to twist away from Angel and Luis' gunfire. Again its distortions prove futile; the muzzleflashes illuminate gouts of black gelatin ripped from the demon's head and upper body. Snicker-snack go the teeth, blown from the creature's face by Luis' stubby .45 rounds. The demon's powerful leap carries it straight into the two Delta operators, knocking them sprawling to the warm smooth floor, but it is only a ragged lifeless broken thing that remains once they get to their feet.
Davis doesn't see the demon get shredded by gunfire. He's already running to Hadiya, who's on her side, curled around too many torso wounds to staunch. Kao painfully gets to his knees, then staggers to his feet, swaying.
In the background, Ngawai moves up to inspect the creature, rifle trained on the beast. Hadiya's eyes flick towards Ngawai; Davis follows their gaze, then meets Hadiya's again.
---
The demon's either dead or dying quick - the radio nonsense the team's been dealing with has quieted down significantly. Only soft coughs of what sound like dying people remain, tinged with an increasing lost-signal white noise.
"Hadiya!" Davis shouts as he runs over to her side. He kneels down next to her on the sandy floor of the chamber, and tears her body armor off. The demon's claws have torn huge gashes into her chest, ripping straight through the armor, and blood is pooling around her body. Davis doesn't need medical training to know that she's dying.
"Hey, Garrett," Hadiya says, weakly. She manages a small smile despite the pain.
"Oh God, Hadiya, no," Davis says as he lifts her up and holds her close to him. "No, no, no, not again..."
"Come on, Garrett, toughen up," she says in his ear. "When did you start to go soft on me?"
Davis laughs a little through his tears. "Sorry, it might have be that it's my fault that I left the woman I love behind to die."
"Why?" Hadiya asks. Davis can feel her blood soaking through his armor and into his clothes. "You didn't betray me, you didn't give the orders to leave me behind. What about that was your fault?"
"I could have fought them, I could have hijacked that helicopter -"
"And gotten shot or left behind yourself," Hadiya says, and coughs. "Don't be stupid, Garrett. You know how I was. If you had tried something like that, if they didn't kill you, I would have. I wouldn't have wanted you to throw your life away for me. If it was me being rescued and being forced to leave you behind, what would you have done if I had tried to stay with you?"
"I'd have made you save yourself, no matter what happens."
"And what makes you think I didn't do the same thing for you?" Hadiya says. "Maybe that's what I did for you back in that village."
There's a pause. "Yeah, I guess so." Davis weakly smiles. "You know, for a figment of my imagination, you're awfully insightful."
"What can I say, maybe your subconscious version of me is tired of you punishing yourself for something you didn't do." Hadiya coughs again, this time bringing up blood. She's still bleeding out onto the sand, by this time having lost far more blood than the human body can contain.
She starts to look even worse than she did before, and Davis can feel her grip around him grow weaker. "I think it's time for you to go, Garrett," Hadiya says.
"No," Davis says, holding her tighter. "No, I want to stay here with you."
"Stay here, in some strange demon's hallucination world with the bleeding-out mental image of your dead girlfriend?" Hadiya says. "That doesn't sound particularly healthy."
"I just don't want to lose you again, azizam," Davis says.
Hadiya manages to lean back away from Davis enough that they're face to face. "Come on, Garrett, don't you get it? I'm already gone. You're talking to your own memories of me. The real me is long since dead and gone. You're trying to hold onto a ghost." She kisses him on the forehead. "It's time to let me go."
"No," Davis says, shaking his head. "No, I can't let you go."
"You have to," Hadiya says. "You need to stop focusing on the dead and start paying attention to the living," she says, and looks over to Ngawai, who's standing over by the demon's body, looking around for trouble, with the green light of the chem lights reflecting off her Turai armor.
Davis laughs again. "God, I'm not particularly subtle, am I?"
Hadiya laughs with him and shrugs. "Neither was I. Now, it's time for you to go."
Davis looks back to Ngawai, then back to Hadiya. "Yeah, I guess you're right." He gives Hadiya one last, long kiss. "I love you, Hadiya. I always will."
She smiles. "I know. And I'm sure the real me knows that too." She pushes him back. "Now, get the fuck out of here. You've still got to find a way back to Earth."
"Right," Davis says, and lays her down on the sand.
"Goodbye, Garrett Davis." She closes her eyes, and her breathing stops.
For a second, Davis sits there in silence, tears falling down his face. Then he stands up, his armor and clothes completely dry, without a trace of blood on them. He looks over her pristine, beautiful body, dressed in the mix of local garb and western clothing she preferred in life, just as when he met her. "Goodbye, Hadiya Sahar."
Davis stands there for a second, then looks back to Kao. "You ready to get out of here?"
Davis' voice cuts in and out over the garbling radio. His goodbyes cause Ngawai to perk up, look around, and then head back towards Swims, the Gate chamber, and Davis' body, her rifle still at the ready.
---
Kao's voice is strong, but the environment around Davis is growing darker, shifting slightly with a green miasma. "I do not believe we have a choice in the matter. Until that day, Garrett Davis." Kao fades with the rest of Davis' sight until he awakes in the Gate chamber, Ngawai crouched over him, his radio silent.
Davis slowly opens his eyes, and looks up to see Ngawai crouched down next to him. He pushes himself up to a sitting position, shakes his head, and manages to weakly smile at Ngawai. "Hey, what'd I miss? I assume we got the fucker." He massages his temples, then suddenly stops and looks up at Ngawai. "Did you hear...all of what I said?"
Davis looks surprised when Ngawai hauls him to his feet, but that quickly goes away once she kisses him. "Uhh..." He's still flustered, though. "I was here, but not here. The demon created some kind of weird mind-space in our own heads to try to torture and kill us. Mine was..." Davis shakes his head. "Well, it wasn't a good memory. Hadiya and I were in love, and then...well, its a long story, and I'm sure you've figured out how it ends." Davis wipes his eyes. "Anyway, I found someone else the demon had connected to and was trying to kill, and we managed to fight our way back through the connection to the demon's mind, which was focused on what was happening right at that moment where it was." Davis gathers up his gear. "So, here, but not here."
He sees the look in Ngawai's eyes, wondering about what happened in there. "I'll tell you all about it once we get out of here." He straps his SCAR back around his shoulders, and looks her in the eye. "And I'll tell you about Hadiya. But first, we have to get to a place that's somewhat more safe than here, deal?"
As Ivan walks away, Luis squats to do a quick medic's once over of the...thing. It's partially out of curiosity, but also serves as cover as he leans over. "You will never understand what drives me, fucker," he whispers, "You know why? Because you died first." He finishes his quick examination (making sure to avoid any physical contact--he's learned to be careful touching stuff) and returns to the Gateroom. "Hey, so are we going to meet your new and interesting friends? You want to let us in on that bit?"
"Having the time of my life, Angel," Davis says. "I just got literally mind-raped by what might be a psychic demon, had my most painful moments thrown back in my face, and then climbed into its mind and killed it from the inside. And no, Luis, not really at the moment. I swear, when we get back, I'm taking a vacation."
He looks over to Swims, and sees that he's missing an important body part and still looking kinda out of it. "Jesus, Swims-the-Black, that thing really fucked you up. Do you know if there's any way we can...you know, put you back together?"
Admiral Duck Sauce
