TERRACE Draft - Remaining Days

[lucetimods]

Who: All Draftees
What: All hell breaks loose
When: From the 27th to the 1st.
Where: TERRACE!
Summary: Information post here
Rating: Varies on thread, please mark explicit material.

This post covers the second to sixth day! Be sure to check the info post on the timeline to know what's up. At 2AM on the 27th, the attack will break out while most people are sleeping. Be sure to use the above info post for any plotting needs you might have. Enjoy!

Some random NPC quotes about the island itself.

Be sure to tag this post appropriately: [canon] character name

Comments

[widows_kiss]

"Turn on him?" She echoes him, and there's a note of incredulity in her own voice as Tony tells her this. Does he know what he's asking of her? Does he understand what that means? If anything, Clint grows more tense at her side, more agitated, angry, defensive.

Natasha brings her pistol up, the barrel aimed at Tony, her hands steady as she stares him down. She feels Clint shift beside her, coiled energy and a hint of surprise, but her gaze never leaves Tony's.

"And if I do believe you, he dies. That's what you're telling me, Stark?"

[alloys]

For a split second, he thought she was going to shoot him, and that would be the end of it. Her bullet would be faster than he lower his visor to protect his head. But if she was going to shoot him, why hesitate? She would only shoot him if she was convinced that he was lying - and evidently, she wasn't.

Still, he froze, swallowing before he answered. "That's right. The Shifter dies, and we go back to our real team who needs us right now."

[widows_kiss]

"This is crazy, Tasha, why are you even listening to this? We need to get moving, we're running out of time and our window is closing. Just leave him," Clint interrupted, reaching out and laying a hand on her arm, trying to give her a nudge in the direction they'd previously been heading.

Natasha didn't budge, her mind racing, her gaze not leaving Tony's face, taking in his reaction. Taking in Clint's. Tony had give her a complication, a puzzle and suddenly she wasn't sure she could trust her gut instinct. She wasn't sure who she should be trusting, and that had her jaw clenching, tension and cold dread sliding up her spine. The idea that someone - something had gotten inside her head infuriated her, made her feel sick.

But it also gave her an out.

"Manitoba."

It was a senseless word. A location. One that meant nothing to her personally, one that she had no information on beyond generic fact and a map inside her head. She dropped it in the middle of the tense silence and let it hang there, until Clint's impatience got the better of him, confusion written on his face as he tried to get them to move again.

"What? I don't... Tash, we've got to move, they're-"

This time she didn't hesitate, ignored the voice that screamed in the back of her mind. Her eyes were cold and lethal as she spun and the report of the gun echoed deafeningly in her ears as she fired the killshot at Clint.

The illusion didn't even last long enough for her to see him drop. One moment they were in an alley, the next they were back on TERRACE, in the middle of a battlefield. The disorientation lasted only a moment, like being dropped in cold water, a sudden and instantaneous waking from a nightmare.

Still. She couldn't bring herself to move, even though she knew the Shifter still towered over her. She could do nothing but stare at her hand, her grip tight and white-knuckled around the grip of her pistol.

[alloys]

Tony's tensely held breath went out of him with the gunshot. Reality erupted around them, and they're back on the battlefield. She did it. She ended the dream.

She shot Clint.

There would be time to worry about the implications of that later, though. They're back in the middle of war now, and the Shifter was still standing. He instinctively raised a repulsor at the cultist. He tried to shout, tried to get her to snap to it, but out of the dream his voice was gone again. Dammit.

If she didn't fire, he would.

[widows_kiss]

It took her longer to respond than it should, and even lifting her head, raising her arm, seemed to take such an immense amount of strength that she wasn't sure she was capable of it. But she did. She lifted her hand, her gun, and emptied the rest of her bullets into the cultist's face without a single flinch.

The body slumped over to the ground, lifeless, and Natasha stared at it, her expression impassive, purposefully blank. Although there was something not right in her gaze, something off, and her movements were stilted as she holstered her pistol once more. Pushed herself to her feet again.

She didn't look at Tony.

[alloys]

This would be a really damn convenient time to get his voice back. He should say something. But maybe it was a blessing in disguise - what would he even say, if he could? Apologies were far too hollow for something like this.

Killing your most important person wasn't something that could be rubbed away with words.

He tried to catch her gaze though, a question in his eyes. He wanted to make sure she was stable enough to fight before they headed back into the fray.

[widows_kiss]

She took a deep breath, trying to focus, trying to center herself. Doing her best to push this out of her mind for now. Because she didn't have the indulgence of time and safety to deal with it. She closed her eyes for a moment, taking another deep breath, her hands limp at her sides. A shudder swept through her and then she opened her eyes again, careful facade slipping into place once more, held firmly in control.

She turned her head then, meeting his gaze for a moment, her lips pressed in a thin line.

"Thank you. I..." She wasn't sure what she wanted to say. What she needed to say. She shook her head, trying to push away that last glimpse of... No.

"Don't tell Clint," is what she said instead, looking up once more, meeting Tony's gaze, and there was something quietly pleading in her look despite the simple words.

[alloys]

He watched her carefully before nodding. It wasn't his story to tell, even if he could. Hell, Pepper still didn't know about his encounter with a Dream Shifter, and if Natasha didn't think Clint needed to know, Tony definitely wasn't about to overstep that boundary.

[widows_kiss]

She nodded once, the movement a little abrupt, but at least appearing solid and steady. Taking another deep breath, she met his gaze. "Thank you," she said again, because she owed him for that. Another thing she took seriously.

[alloys]

Another nod of acknowledgement. She would have done the same if it were him - he's just glad things went the way they had. Because even for how shaken she was now, things could have been much, much worse.

He gestured toward the fight. They should get back out there.

[widows_kiss]

She reloads her handgun with swift efficiency, her jaw clenched as she nodded in understanding to his silent message.

"I really hate cultists," she muttered, knowing he understood. Maybe better than most, if his expression was anything to go by. "I owe you," she added a moment later, but she didn't stick around to get a response, because the sounds of fighting were growing louder and closer again and she really needed the distraction.

Everything else could wait for later. Right now they had a fight to win. She didn't hesitate or look back as she dropped herself back into the thick of it.