thenearshore | justice delayed [closed]

Who: Cho Hakkai, Schuldig, D2, Ross
When: September 14th
Where: Outside Loki's temple hideaway
What: Hakkai promised Ross several weeks ago that he would help deal with "Loki." Finally -- with D2's help -- that promise is about to be fulfilled. Unfortunately, it's not all going to go as planned....
Warnings: Character death, violence (gun & melee.)

[Even at the tail end of summer, the tops of the mountains above them are snow-dusted and pale against the midafternoon blue of the sky. The cave that Ross had pointed out is almost invisible.

Hakkai would never, he thinks, looking at it from his position a few hundred meters away, have found it on his own. Loki's temple is not built to encourage visitors.

Loki does, however, have to return to his temple sometime -- and from what Ross had mentioned about his schedule, it will be soon. Hakkai shifts, feeling the slight pinch of the microphone D2 had given him against his undershirt where it's clipped, and glances back down along the flank of the mountain. Yes, it should be soon.]

Come, Shiki.

[The tall blond figure next to him dissolves into a heavy saber, naked in his hand. He waits.]

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[The wire catches Hakkai's throat. It bites deep as Schuldig turns and throws his weight into it before Hakkai's hand can make it between metal and skin to clutch for inches of air, of blood.

He clutches for it anyway, with the hand that's working properly, as his ears fill with meaningless sound and black stars burst across his vision. No. No, it's too easy: no, how could he be so slow?

His fingernails, clawing for the metal, leave bleeding gouges across his neck, but it's too deep, it, too, is drawing blood. He can't feel it spilling down his shirt, but he can feel that his hands are slipping over his skin, too easily.

He'd brought backup. He'd known he was bait. Still, as his vision narrows to a point, and washes out on black, he wonders: did he let this happen? Could he have fought more effectively, could--

-- the bruises are still there on his throat, laid open by the wire but still there beneath the blood. This is the easier way to die. This is the way that's a mistake, and not a choice.

He hadn't consciously wondered, until his last glimmer of consciousness, if this were also a choice.

He thinks it might be.

As his hand slackens and falls from his neck, his lips tilt into a bloodstained smile.]

[Schuldig is grunting hard under his breath, straining under the blight that Ross inflicts on him, until he can finally feel the desperate attempts stop.

Only then, at last, does he release the tension on the wire. He rolls his back just enough for the dead body to fall on the ground and Schuldig to exhale loudly in relief, still smirking through the pain. He lets Ross's vessel form fall to the ground, not dropping the wire's handle. He lets all of that mental effort that he'd been exerting go, no longer controlling Ross and instead simply not calling his name to change him back.

Still, the blight is certainly eating away at the both of them.]

Was that the backup plan then? Huh?

[His voice is rough, but he still thinks he's won.]

Blight your way into becoming an ayakashi? You didn't strike me as a martyr, kid.

[ While they were moving, it was of course hard to get a shot in without the risk of hitting Hakkai instead, and now that they're not in movement..

Fuck.

With the way that Schuldig is standing, with Hakkai shielding his body, even though it's likely unintentional, D2 can't get a shot in.

He could shoot him through Hakkai...probably. But it's a gamble to do something like that, the bullet might not reach Schuldig at all, and then Schuldig would know that D2 was there before he was able to even lightly injure him. If he had just been angled a little bit differently, or if there had been anything that he could aim at that could ricochet a bullet into Schuldig without anything obstructing the bullet's path, this would have been easier.

Except then Hakkai stops struggling and it's not hard to guess why; D2 knew that this had been a possibility, trying to kill someone could get you killed, and this is a battle field, however small.

D2 is surprised that he manages to keep his cool (for the most part), and that his hands remain steady. Once Schuldig lets go of Hakkai, D2 finally has a clear view and that's what he focuses on. He can't allow himself to focus on anything else right now.

The first bullet hits right as Schuldig finishes talking, it goes into his throat, intentionally missing his larynx (but only barely), tearing muscles and veins. The second bullet brushes a rib and makes a hole in his right lung, the third is aimed at his stomach, which is easier to hit than the lungs; after all, there are fewer ribs in the way. The fourth bullet is aimed at his left kneecap, with the intentions of shattering the bones.

The bullets come in rapid succession; now that his vision is unobstructed, aiming takes less then a second. ]

Edited 2018-02-01 17:42 (UTC)

[It took a second for him to realize he wasn't in his vessel form. He'd been used with the intent of killing someone. Not only that, he'd been used against someone who was trying to help him, and he couldn't prevent it. If anything, he'd been an obstacle. It took the blight burning into his skin for him to snap out of that train of thought.

There was still a chance. Or so he wanted to believe. He went to Hakkai with his hands already glowing, but no matter how much mana he poured into his healing magic, there was no change. None of the wounds were closing. That was when he knew it was much too late. His magic was bound by natural laws, and natural laws couldn't bring someone back from this state. He stood up with his hands balled into fists and his fingernails digging into his palms.

He would have to take Hakkai's body back to his temple, but the thought wasn't occurring to him right then.]

[ If Ross is back out of vessel form, then Schuldig should be properly dead. Probably. He doesn't know for sure. But he secures and packs up the firearm, slips the bag over his shoulder and leaves his perch. He has no teleportation ability, so he has to move by foot to reach the scene of the battle.

He doesn't know if Ross will leave before he gets there, but he still has to go there. It'll take a little while, but he hurries, and he's cursing all the way, while he listens to what he can hear through the listening device, trying to catch any sound. ]

[ There'd been no hint in Ross's mind that the fallback plan was a sniper, let alone where the sniper was coming from. Ross's blight had been clouding the forefront of his thoughts enough that it was consuming him and Schuldig himself was so affected by his own blight that he could only concentrate on superficial thoughts.

But that was the only way they were able to succeed in killing him - he didn't see it coming. He had a split second for the first bullet to shatter his facade of confidence and superiority over handling the situation before the second bullet came and really wracked him with pain. Instead of a gut instinct to teleport away - a new power that he didn't have nearly enough practice using for it to be second nature - he turns to face his attacker like maybe he'll be able to stop them from this distance. Of course that's not what happens, and soon enough he crumples to the ground under the impact, spray, and sound of his own imminent death. He can't muster the mental strength to scream at his deceptive shinki, nor can he speak well enough to do the same out loud. He's been thoroughly silenced, which is as much a punishment as any death that - hypothetically - a god can recover from.

As the light from Schuldig's eyes fades, the first thing to happen is indeed Ross changing back out of his vessel form. When he breathes his last, a more drastic change takes place. The snowy cavern behind them starts to melt, the rocks underneath them crumbling. This was all his temple, after all - his hideaway starting at the very entrance. They'll not be able to see the inner sanctum likewise distorting into naught but dust, but that's why the mountain heaves and groans like Schuldig couldn't, threatening an avalanche that won't come. Instead, the whole thing collapses in on itself like a sinkhole pulling the place into a vortex of grainy sand that less resembles a beautiful beach and more a shore at the base of a European cliff.

Finally, there's silence. The temple of Loki is no more and, in the chaos of it all, Schuldig's body disappears too.]

justice delayed [closed]

cw: strangulation/injury, death, self-destructive thinking

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cw: gunshots

no subject

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