expiationlogs | one way or another

[ Shaw grabs her arm, but the other hand comes up to shove the muzzle of her gun directly into her gut.

Her eyes turn flinty. ] There's no changing plans after we get an assignment. You know that.

The intel is never wrong.

[ Shaw might not know where the intel comes from... but Root does. And she won't tolerate doubt or dissent. ]

No.

[Her breath hitches, a subtle but still uncharacteristic hint of panic.]

Gotta say, they did a good job switching things up this time. But this isn't you.

Edited 2024-11-18 13:46 (UTC)

Don't tell me you're falling for it. That whole humans deserve free will thing?

[ Root sounds scornful, sure of herself, but also frustrated. She doesn't want to shoot Shaw. Case in point about why humans shouldn't be allowed to make decisions for themselves; Root is drawn by her own all-too-fallible feelings to go easy on her.

She eases back with the pistol just a little. ]

You can't side with her.

[The penny, which had started rolling precariously close to the precipice, fully drops. Now, she knows exactly what's going on.

(No, she doesn't. But she thinks she does, and the logic makes a scary amount of sense. Convincing and manipulating her with Greer, Lambert, and Samaritan itself hadn't worked. The new thing they're trying doesn't just involve changing the setting, it involves changing Root, and it sickens her to the core to see it.)

In one swift movement, Shaw pulls out the gun and points it at her own head, finger playing over the trigger.]

So - what number are we gonna be on when I end this thing? I've lost count.

[ Root is actually astonished to see her threaten suicide. It's so completely foreign compared to the Shaw she knows. She falters back a step, lowering her weapon, eyes wide. ]

What's that supposed to accomplish? What's going on with you? We have a mission. You never turn down a mission.

I could shoot you, too. You're not even pretending to be like her; it'd be easy.

[She's not lying. She could do it. Physically and emotionally, she's capable of pulling the trigger on this offensively obvious trick, no matter how real it looks.

But she'd held off on killing thousands of fake Roots, in thousands of scenarios that she was sure were simulations. She can't break that streak now - because doing so would also break something small but irreparable in her.]

Why would I--

[ She gets cut off by the crackling of static on Shaw's dark net communicator, a voice coming through with tense urgency. ]

Shaw, I may have been a little hasty in saying I had it under control-- [ The real Root's words break off into a cry of pain. ]

Root?

[This causes a bit of a scramble; she can handle a weapon with her non-dominant hand with more ease than she can work controls with it, so she swaps gun hands, then yanks out her communicator.]

Root, what the hell is going on?

[ There's sounds of movement and scraping, heavy breathing, before Root answers. ]

There's another one of you, and she's really hard to keep down. I take it back -- you're way more than mildly terrifying.

[ In the distraction of the conversation, Shaw may or may not notice that Samaritan Root is gone. That was all the confirmation she needed, and she could tell Shaw wasn't going to help her on this mission. The mission was what mattered. ]

I--

[She takes a step back from the spot where Root suddenly isn't.]

There's another one of you; I was just with her. I-- I lost her, I don't know how I--

["Find her and kill her," she hears her own voice instruct from over the line. "And I'll kill this one. You know we were always going to eventually."

She can't hear her double swing a fist at Root's face, but she'll hear the resulting hit - regardless of whether it connects with its intended target, or something else as Root dodges or redirects.]

[ Even in the chaos of the fight, Root can put that problem together immediately: Shaw had never managed to shoot her in any one of the simulations. Which means they need to trade opponents. Root has no compunctions whatsoever about shooting her own lookalike. She's rapidly getting over any compunctions about going after Shaw's lookalike with an intent to kill, either.

Root takes the punch on purpose with a short scream, knowing she's going to be paying for that one for a while in facial bruises but accepting it so she has an opportunity to pull out her second pistol and shove it into Shaw's double's stomach.

Just like Samaritan Root. Except this time, she pulls the trigger immediately, three times.

Over the radio, the gun shots fade into ringing silence before Root's voice comes through the line again. Briskly: ] We need to regroup. Meet me-- [ she thinks quickly ] at the library in twenty. Assume you're being tailed.

[ It's a central location, easy to get to from multiple angles, which means they can both try to lose their doubles before they get there. And it has some obvious sentimental value on its own, a way of maybe reaffirming to Shaw that the two of them are the real ones, for whatever that's worth. ]

Root!

[Shaw calls out when she hears the cry, already moving towards their original intersection; the subsequent gunshots only speed her along. And then Root changes the plan, and for one wild moment, Shaw reels in confusion: the library was compromised, the library is gone, how can they--

Right. An actual library. The library here; the one that she's walked past several times but not yet visited.

She redirects immediately, spinning on her heel and making her way there as fast as she can.]

[ Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, refuses to go away. Philip K. Dick. Or something. Root thinks the bracing reminder to Shaw of which simulation they're in couldn't hurt -- it's been surprisingly consistent lately.

Root limps in later than Shaw, having been especially careful not to leave a trail, duplicate Shaw left cooling but probably slowly resurrecting in an alley behind her. She hopes the massive gut wound slows her down, but can't bank on it. She has a huge bruise blossoming across one check and over that eye, and she is favoring one leg, but Root still moves with her usual merciless impatience to get to the next part of the job.

She finds her inside at a study table in an out-of-the-way nook. She feels herself soften with relief for one overwhelming moment before Root's brain kicks into gear and she thinks to do an identity check, for both of their benefit. ]

Ontspannen?

[ Dutch for relax, Bear's command that he's off-duty. It doesn't seem likely that creepy alternates of themselves would have ended up befriending the sad crusading duo and their dog. ]

[Shaw makes a small mmm sound - not a sound of confusion, but rather a sound of understanding the question, but not being sure of how to answer. She's stressed, she's rattled, and she is very much not doing okay.]

Bewaken.

[Alert and on guard. She looks past Root, her eyes scanning the room.]

Pretty sure she didn't follow me.

Good enough.

[ She'd understood the code phrase and responded, that was really all she was looking for. Root holsters her guns and rushes forward, putting her hands on Shaw's shoulders, meeting her eyes insistently. ]

Are you all right? What was I like? You were-- creepy.

Ditto. Big Samaritan fangirl.

[Slowly, she lifts a hand inch by inch, bringing it to rest on Root's clavicle.]

That's their new game these days. They don't just want me to lead them to the Machine, they want me on their side, Root.

It's not a new game, [ Root says gently, holding her in the quiet hush of the library, not moving. She'll deal with her double being a Samaritan groupie in a second. She probably should've guessed it would go in that direction... ]

That's the old game, Sameen. There's something else going on now. And it probably has something to do with us being criminals that need rehabilitating. That's the party line, after all.

Right.

[She says, not argumentatively or sarcastically, but like she's parroting a line she's learned by rote.]

What was my, uh-- what was she like? What did she do to your face?

[ Again: good enough for now. Root isn't going to try to initiate a whole heart-to-heart in the middle of a crisis. Well, not in this particular crisis, when she doesn't think there's a real danger of them permanently expiring in the middle of it. She knows how Shaw feels about it, so she won't say it out loud, but being in a simulation is sort of comforting to her. ]

She punched me. You have an impressive punch, not that that's a surprise. [ Can't help complimenting her even now. ] She was in sweats and wanted to keep apologizing to me, so I caught on pretty fast it wasn't really you.

[ Root smirks at her, also unable to resist teasing. ]

[Shaw's eyes narrow skeptically. It's not that she can't imagine ever apologizing to Root, but given the circumstances, it feels suspicious.]

Apologizing? What the hell for, not bruising you enough?

[ Root thinks over that interaction, tilting her head, considering it. It's been a rush since then so she hasn't really taken a moment to let it sink in. ]

I think you were having a few regrets about following orders without asking too many questions.

[ She shrugs. ]

It wasn't anything big. I just couldn't imagine you'd come up to me in the middle of the street in slippers and start talking about your bad kills. So I tazed her and called you to check.

She told me to kill you. Are you sure it wasn't bragging?

[Shaw moves her hand up from Root's shoulder, tracing the shape of the bruise: checking for blood or misshapen bits, and prodding for tender spots.]

Oh, maybe.

[ Root's willing to be wrong on her interpretation. Especially if Shaw is playing doctor again. She winces a little at the touch -- it's tender -- but it doesn't seem like it's going to slow her down any. ]

I'd love to lick each other's wounds with you, but we should probably go get the real weaponry. I have another Samaritan agent to shoot.

[ And if it happens to look just like her, oh well! ]

one way or another

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw: suicide threat

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject