“Canaan.” Who: Canaan, Motoko, Shepard briefly. What: A mission goes really badly. When: Recently. Where: Some clandestine location somewhere. Ratings/Warnings: R. Mentions of blood, injury, and gun violence. Nothing too gory, but still there. Status: Complete!
Motoko’s left arm wasn’t functioning. It hung loosely at her side, but she couldn’t dwell on that right now. Right now she had to get to Canaan. They could figure out where it all went wrong later, right now they had to save the mission and get out of this alive.
And if they’d hurt her lover she was going to rip them limb from limb.
They were both going to need repairs and adjustments. Canaan hadn't even realised how dependant she'd gotten on Mayuri's display overlay until it had broken on her.
She could barely see out of that eye now, but there was no time to worry about what that might mean for her. She'd killed the man responsible for her current state, and the only thing that mattered now was finding Motoko and picking up the pieces.
Neither of them knew the meaning of failure.
Canaan crept along a darkened hallway, pistol in her hand, good eye glowing red in the dark. Follow her color... what's left of her color... it iridesces. You can feel it.
The sound of gunfire echoed throughout the building.
Her fist went through a man’s skull but there was no time to think about that. She’d gotten pinned down, bullets tearing through her artificial body. She was reminded of her newer dreams. Her body being ripped apart as she tried to pull the tank apart. The weapons Cerberus had in this facility were special. AP rounds, with some kind of electrified coating that disrupted her body. There was even a bullet that passed through the wall without leaving a hole, and exploded into her back. Her contacts in Shepard’s group needed to know about this.
If they got out of this alive.
She was left with carrying her left arm with her right and clubbing people with it. Canaan better be alive. She had to be. If Canaan was dead, Motoko wasn’t coming out of this.
Whoever these people were, they'd definitely known Motoko's weaknesses. Her own were as of yet unidentified, but Canaan wasn't certain how long that could be expected to last. Her own abilities weren't normal either, and they'd been exploited in the dream world.
It was one of her greatest fears. The other one was that if Motoko's body 'died', whatever was left that made her human would go with it. She used that fear to propel her forward, pushing through any remaining exhaustion or pain.
Motoko's color lead around a corner and down a long hallway. The sounds of combat got louder as she followed it. There was blue everywhere around them - bullets, not just bodies. For Motoko, she could dodge bullets. She could, and she did, even as she fired her gun at the enemies in her path.
Canaan must be free. The thought made Motoko stumble, and she twitched a little as another bullet tore a hole in her body. She needed to retreat, but not without her partner. The android started to sprint, shifting her vision to the infrared.
Two targets. She took one down, but the second hit threw something. She dove for cover as an explosion ripped apart the hallway.
Maybe she would just sit here for a bit.
The facility they were in shook with the force of it. Canaan's head snapped from side to side as she tried to get a lock on the direction of the epicenter. If their enemy was using explosives, they were getting desperate. This wasn't about capture anymore. They wanted Canaan and Motoko dead.
She flipped over the railing of the stairwell she'd just run into and swung down from it, climbing quickly to the floor below without having to bother with stairs.
There was no one to contend with when she landed but a cloud of acrid smoke. The second target must have blown themselves up in the process of throwing the bomb. She coughed a bit, and called out, "Major?"
“Canaan?” Thank god. Motoko tried to pull herself to her feet, and was mostly successful. “There’s a few dozen more headed our way. We need to find a way out.” Her voice sounded odd, and a little distorted. Mayuri was going to have fits.
Canaan looked like she'd been through the ringer, but she wasn't nearly as bad off as Motoko was. Her partner quickly took in the sight of her - including the fact that Motoko was wielding her left arm with her right arm - and winced a bit.
There wasn't time to be worried about her. Canaan had to trust that Mayuri could fix her.
She nodded her head and looked around them, scanning the area with her eyes. The last time she'd strained this hard was in the dream world. She knew the consequences, but she didn't care, "They aren't blue. They're evacuating. My guess is they're cutting their losses and setting charges downstairs."
“I’m sorry you have to see me like this,” She replied, her voice distorted. She was sorry she’d gone in here with just the two of them, but none of her intel had told her it would be like this, or they’d have this kind of technology.
"I only see your color," Canaan replied, her tone softer than usual. She was still trying to figure out an escape route. They were underground, of course, so it wasn't as easy as finding a window.
If they joined the pack of people trying to escape the building, they might have some luck there. That was, of course, only if whoever ran this place had any intention of letting anyone leave at all.
She shook her head at herself, "Elevators won't work. My guess is they'll let people enter them and then lock them down. We need to go up. Exit the way we entered."
“That has to be handy,” Motoko agreed. She nodded at her partner. “You need to take the lead. I can cover our rear but I will not be able to move as fast.” Canaan could be her eyes, ironically.
"It's handy. It helped me find you."
Canaan nodded her head, and grabbed onto the limb that Motoko still had ahold of. With that, she could pull Motoko along. Back towards the stairwell, after the horde had passed. She only had two bullets left in her clip, and she tried to save them for an absolute emergency.
She couldn’t trust her own senses, so she had to rely on Canaan’s. They had to work together as extensions of each others’ bodies, just to survive this. “Canaan.” The way she said the woman’s name sounded like a deathbed confession.
"Save it," Canaan replied, shaking her head. She knew what Motoko was going to say, or she at least had a hunch, but this wasn't the time. It wasn't how she wanted to hear it, not because they thought they weren't making it out of this.
They just had to make it out of this, then they could say anything they wanted to, "We're not doing this. We're going to get out of here."
She paused at the turn of a corner and held a hand up, then tripped a man who was about to run around it with her leg. A quick boot to the man's temple left him unconscious, and she grabbed the pistol in his hand before taking Motoko's arm again and continuing to pull her along.
Motoko closed her mouth. She looked at Canaan meaningfully, but she shut it. Instead she let herself be led along. This was uncomfortably close to being shot in the head in her dreams. But there, she’d been downloaded. She didn’t remember if Mayuri had set something like that up, or if he did, the memory file was inaccessible right now.
That thought actually frightened her.
It was like leading Maria along in the dreams, that one time that they'd been in the city during the dragon festival. Maria had been brave and a little clueless as to how much danger they'd actually been in, though, and instead Canaan thought that Motoko knew exactly how bad the situation was.
And it sounded like Motoko was giving up. That wasn't an option.
They'd made their way to the stairwell, and Canaan pushed herself to keep running up them. More shots rang out as they got closer to the top, and she dodged and weaved around them so quickly that it almost looked like she was teleporting. She was glad for the new pistol, then, because she didn't have to pick and choose her targets.
By the time they'd gotten to the top, whatever resistance they'd come across was dead. But dodging bullets like that was a skill not even Canaan could keep up forever, and a few of them had scraped past her arms and legs. She stopped to catch her breath, "We've just got to... Climb our way out now..."
If it kept Canaan alive, Motoko would give up. She was contemplating a way to get Canaan out of here through any means necessary. She looked up at the climb ahead and laughed. “I’ll have to use my teeth. Can you strap my left arm to my back?” She’d try, if only to keep Canaan going.
"You can grab with your right arm, and I'll hoist you with my shoulder until you grab the next rung," Canaan suggested. If she stopped for too much longer, she was a little afraid she'd stop moving entirely, so she quickly went about the business of strapping Motoko's detached arm onto her back, as requested.
She looked up again, and steeled herself. It wasn't that long a climb, "Up you go. We can do this."
“I guess I don’t get a choice,” Motoko said, sounding more and more robotic. She grabbed onto something to pull herself to her feet. If she had a boost she could probably make it. WIth just one arm it was going to be a really long and hard climb.
It didn't matter as long as they made it up there. Canaan gave Motoko a boost, and then climbed up inside the escape hatch. She closed it underneath her, and then started the process of just getting them upward and out of there.
Any second now, she was certain she was going to pass out. If that was going to happen, she wanted it to happen on the roof. There was a good chance that an explosion so many floors down would still shake them, but not badly enough that they wouldn't survive it.
Maybe.
At the top of the shaft there was a bright white light as someone opened it. Motoko moved faster, praying that the shadow peering down was on their side. For Canaan's sake if not her own.
Something shot down the shaft past them, impacting the hatch far below. The explosion collapsed the lower part, preventing anyone from possibly following them.
As they climbed into the sun, strong hands helped them out. A large, sixwheeled vehicle idled nearby. Motoko exhaled, and her body shut down. Her good eye moved a little.
“Lets get her into the Mako,” Shepard said. “Before they realize I’m up here.”
"I'll ask you where the hell you came from later," Canaan replied, nodding in agreement. She was about to shut down, just like Motoko had. She just couldn't.
The glow in her eyes dispersed as she picked up one of Motoko's damaged legs. But before her eyes snapped back into their regular mode, she took in the sight of it.
It had no color at all. Without anything powering it, it was just as grey as the guns and stuffed animals she preferred. It made her eyes sting - especially the eye that was injured. Every single fear she had for herself and her lover had come true, now, but she bit her lip and said nothing.
“Little birdie told me,” Shepard said, picking up Motoko by the shoulders. “She’s heavy when she’s limp, but she’ll be fine. I’ve seen synthetic beings come back from worse.”
"I will just have to take your word for it. I don't even want to think about what happens if you are wrong."