CW: Death

Everything had gone to shit so damn quickly. Elaine was supposed to be given ample warning so she could get into position at the bottom of the building. But now she was stuck on their vantage point, with the truck on fire, and on the street below the fighting had begun. Her gaze swung from the standoff to the rooftop entrance behind her. She did not have time to take the fucking stairs. She glanced down at the street below, anxiety spiking. Allie was standing now, her back to the building wall, defiant but terrified. Opposite Allie , with the wreckage between them stood the twins, who seemed to barely even register Lexi’s presence as, enraged, they advanced on their cornered prisoner. 

Alarms were blaring, people were screaming, any moment heroes would start popping out of thin air. Lexi aimed a well timed blast directly at Kraken’s head. He casually weaved around the blast, which dragged across the street, creating a curtain of flame between the twins and their quarry. As Lexi moved to strike again Kraken lashed his tentacles toward her, she blocked, but the sheer force of impact sent her sailing through the air, landing a good fifteen feet away with an ear-splitting crash. 

The chaos surrounded Sentinel, who glanced from Lexi to Allie and the twins, she took a tentative step toward the showdown before her, but was interrupted as an explosion rocked the street behind her. Backup had arrived.

“We need to go, now. You’re on your own, Elaine,” Lexi roared. The jets on her armor pulsed with life, lifting Lexi up and away from the street as she left a trail of destruction in her wake. Sentinel’s gaze lingered in desperation at the scene before her, then with a huff, she took off to pursue, the first wave of backup following suit. Allie was defenseless now, the twins were circling around the wreckage with deliberate, menacing strides. Allie stood poised, but she wouldn’t stand a chance. She had no defense against Siren’s voice, no real combat skill to outmaneuver Kraken.

Elaine tried hard not to panic, she needed to be down there now and unlike some people she didn’t get cool flying armor and that meant her only way down was -- “God dammit.” She muttered under her breath. At least this wouldn’t be the first time she tried this. Just the first time there were any actual stakes. She took a running start, and jumped. 

Wind whipped all around her as Slipspace assumed her best approximation of diving form, the ground drew closer and, just before she made contact with the pavement, she sprung into action. Two portals flickered into existence. She slid perfectly into the little hole in space and came out the other end with a new trajectory. For a moment, Slipspace flew. Her form arched perfectly, before turning into a flying tackle that connected directly with Siren.

The two tumbled, rolled, crashed their way along the street in a landing which could be charitably described as rough. What was important though, was Slipspace came out on top. Like usual an unhelpful part of her brain quipped. She would laugh about that later. Siren opened her mouth to speak, and Slipspace decided to put her head to a more important use: namely driving it forcefully into Siren’s nose. Slipspace committed the sound of Siren’s pained cry to memory. 

Behind them, Kraken rose to his sister's defence, and Allie sprang into Action, sending blast after blast of energy toward him, slicing air, trapping him with walls of raw force. Her moves were wild, unpracticed, but all the more unpredictable for it. And before long she had Kraken on the backfoot. Despite this,. Slipspace knew Allie’s advantage wouldn’t last. Kraken was an expert, and even with her range advantage he would find his opening, Slipspace could see it in the calm focus written across his face. A look of cold calculation.

Slipspace rose to her feet. Her foot met Siren’s skull for good measure, and Slipspace turned to face her new opponent. Kraken was in the midst of twirling around one of Allie’s energy blasts with surprising grace when a bootheel ripped into that nice, soft squishy spot between the ribs. He grunted, all the air evacuating his lungs as a second portal materialized, carrying a low kick to the back of Kraken’s knee. He tumbled backward. A fist met his jaw. Kraken was down. 

Slipspace rose, panting, scraped and bruised, but otherwise unharmed. She turned, locking her gaze with Allie. Her face was twisted with a complex mask of swirling emotion: shock, disbelief, fear, grief, relief, joy.

“Elaine, you’re alive.” She breathed in awe, if they weren’t in a deadly predicament Elaine would have half-expected Allie to reach out and touch her to be certain she wasn’t hallucinating.

“I am. Were you told the contrary?” She paused for a moment, studying Allie’s face. “Nevermind We’ll deal with that later. Hold him in place, Allie.” Between the panting, and wondering whether Allie was about to turn on her as well, her voice was barely audible. But Allie nodded, still searching Elaine with conflicted eyes. They shared a long stare, Elaine willing herself to break the silence, to offer some word of comfort or apology. The moment passed. They had a job to do, their tumultuous relationship would need to wait. 

Slipspace turned to face their downed enemy and suddenly found herself frozen as a realization dawned on her: she had no idea what to do with him.

“You need to kill him, Slipspace.” Arcadia was approaching now, her focus reclaimed by Kraken as she struggled to keep him bound. “We don’t have much time, I can’t hold him forever, there’s too many moving parts, he’ll slip free eventually and won’t hold back.” Elaine stared down into her enemies eyes. She felt hatred like nothing she’d ever felt for this man. Trembling, she lifted her boot up, leaving it perched in mid air above his facing, trying to work up the will to cave it in. Elaine hestistated. She couldn’t. Couldn’t take a life, even Kraken’s. She lowered her leg, slumping forward.

“Elaine what are you doing? You have to kill him if you don’t--” A scream ripped through the air, and Allie froze, her eyes glazed over as she teetered in place, Siren stood. Kraken’s tentacle tore into Elaine’s thigh. She collapsed, her vision growing spotty, she didn’t have much time before the paralysis kicked in. Minutes at best. A tentacle wrapped around her ankle, casting her into the air. She sailed helplessly, barely managing to summon a portal and redirect her arc into one less harmful.

Sprawled on the ground, fading muscles pushed against the venom flowing through her veins. Elaine flipped on her comms, hoping against hope she’d have some safety net.

“Lexi.” Her voice was weak, no part of her seemed willing to cooperate. “Lexi please. Fucked up. Lost. Help.” Her only response was static, occasionally interrupted by a scream or errant explosion. Siren stalked toward her, hips swaying seductively in a confident, poised stride even as blood poured down her face. Her boot came down hard on Elaine’s gut, she cried out in pain, writhing as Siren knelt down, for a moment she looked intrigued at the realization that Elaine had been unaffected by her power. Then she stopped caring and grabbed Elaine by the chin, forcing her to look toward Allie, writhing helplessly at Kraken’s feet as Siren’s delirium overtook her. 

Kraken loomed above, Casting long shadows over his downed opponent. One by one, his tentacles aligned into place, dozens upon dozens of inky black tendrils, pointed at the tip with dripping poisonous barbs. 

“You couldn't have played nice, could you, Slipspace?” There was such delight in that voice, she tried to take comfort in the fact that it was still hoarse from her kick, but the despair overtook any sense of satisfaction. “You had to turn traitor on us, you know, we really were impressed, right up until you started raising hell over the ‘rights’ of some radical terrorist.” She finished with such disgust, such contempt in her voice, held tightly by smug superiority. “Don’t worry though, it’ll be over soon, for both of you. Lethality is authorized during prisoner escape attempts, after all.”

Elaine tried to scream, but her voice wasn’t working, she could only watch in horror as the tendrils hung in the air, poised to strike. They were so far, twenty, maybe thirty feet. Elaine hadn’t fully succumbed yet to the poison, but there was no way she could help from where she’d landed. There was a moment of quiet tension, and Kraken struck.

Something changed in Elaine in the split second that followed. She didn’t have time to process the thoughts consciously. But the reservation, the traces of loyalty, the nagging part of her assuring her things could work if they were just allowed to function as they were meant to all evaporated as the man who represented that system made his move to kill the woman she cared about. And Elaine could not let that happen.

One thought rang true in Elaine’s mind: Allie’s life was worth more than a hundred Krakens and a hundred Sirens. And she would kill them for this. Some dormant dragon within her stirred, muscles pushing against the paralysis, concentration laser honed. And in that moment, twenty or thirty feet away from Elaine, a portal formed between Allie and the tentacles. They plunged into it and out the other side, impaling Siren through the heart, rending her before there was even a chance to react. Siren’s body fell, landing atop of Elaine. 

The portal was dismissed, cleanly slicing Kraken’s tentacles, which suddenly found themselves in two places at once. Kraken screamed in pain. Pain for himself, pain for his sadistic sibling’s death. And as Siren’s hold cleared from Allie and she rose to her feet, he found a new pain altogether: being drawn on all sides and torn apart. The twins were dead. And Elaine felt no guilt.

Allie collapsed forward onto her knees. Elaine stood, the venom dissolving by the moment. She rushed forward, kneeling before Allie. She was crying, they both were crying. Somehow Elaine’s arms wound up clutching Allie tightly, and her brain screamed that she shouldn't be doing that, that Allie probably hated her and never wanted to see her again. But then Allie leaned into the hug, pressing herself tightly against Elaine, wrapping her own arms tightly around her waist and Allie sobbed into Elaine’s shoulder. Awkwardly, her hand raised to rub Allie’s back soothingly. 

“I-I’m sorry.” Elaine’s voice was choked from pain, both physical and emotional. Her words were barely audible over the sounds of chaos around them.

“Don’t.” There was surprising firmness there. “Elaine I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know that I have forgiven or will forgive you. But right now I need to let you be the person who saved me.” Allie tightened her grip, and Elaine nodded silently. They lingered there for several moments, before a painful reminder crossed her brain. Elaine flicked her comm on once more.

“Lexi?” She couldn’t hide the nerves in her voice if she wanted to, and Allie met her gaze with anxious worry as realization dawned on her face at the memory of watching her sister flee the mob of heroes. They waited there for several moments, hearing nothing but silence on the other end. 

“Lexi, please. Please be there.” Elaine begged, her eyes beginning to water, moments stretched endlessly. “God dammit Lexi! Fucking answer me!” She screamed, furiously flipping channels and patching herself through to Sentinel. “Sentinel please, please be there. Is Lexi okay?” Several more moments of silence followed, before a shriek cut into the silence. High and desperate,blood curdling. Another came, and another. This couldn’t be happening, not after everything that had happened. 

The look on Allie’s face was one of utter despair. Any relief melting away as the reality of the situation dawned on her. More screams followed, one after another, each more visceral than the last. Those sadistic fucking heroes, what were they doing to them? 

“Lexi, Sentinel. Please.” Elaine’s voice broke. To have come this far and still lose so much, she wouldn’t be able to handle it. And what words of comfort could she offer Allie? Allie, who’s beloved sister had sacrificed everything for her, and was paying in unthinkable ways. The two sat in silence, weeping choked, soundless sobs of grief. The comm came to life once more, and Elaine braced herself for the torturous screams that would follow.

“Slipspace? We’re both okay. What's your status, is Allie safe?” At the sound of Sentinel’s voice, her eyes flew open. Relief poured out over them both, Allie fell forward into the embrace as Elaine took the opportunity to simply collapse onto the asphalt. The weight in her chest was expelled along with the breath she’d been holding. Things were going to be okay.

* * *

Laying on the charred, torn up asphalt, covered in dirt, body aching from bruises and cuts, her skin chapped and dry, only one thought played on loop in Allie’s head: Elaine was so warm.

SapphicSounds

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