Chapter Text
"Have you decided to spill yet?"
Silence.
"Just as I thought. Well, you leave me no choice"
Chapman began untying Christen from the bar she’d been hanging from and reset her knee back into place. Turning around, Christen noticed that Colonel Tancredi had joined them. Together, Colonels Tancredi and Chapman took Christen to another room.
This room looked like it was straight from a movie. There was a flat platform that was slightly tilted with straps on it. Wires hung awkwardly from the ceiling, connecting to the platform Christen knew she was about to be strapped to.
Christen was worried about this form of torture more than the others, specifically about her little heart issue that Atlas had no idea about. The stress she’d experienced since she’d been here was bad enough, but the electricity would surely fuck her up.
Tancredi and Chapman pushed her back up against the surface of the cold, metal platform and began strapping her wrists, ankles, midsection, and head down to the platform. They took some of the hanging wires from the ceiling and sticking them to various parts of Christen’s body. Just to make sure Christen didn’t accidentally bite her tongue off, they stuck a piece of leather between her teeth.
The electrocution started off slow, with questions being asked and the voltage being put into her body low. It was almost more of an annoying buzz in her body than it was a painful torture. As time passed, and Christen wasn’t exactly sure how much, the voltage would increase and the questions were starting to dwindle. At some point Christen figured they were really doing this for fun and that a confession would just be a plus.
She doesn't know how long she stays there, electricity practically running through her veins. She does know that it's been at least three days, and she's had no food or water.
She prays harder today, prays that Sentinel has a plan to get her.
////
"So what you're saying is, we don't have a plan?"
"Tobin hasn't come back with anything yet, we don't know what we're up against or what is actually at the base"
"These are times I wish satellites still worked"
Kelley rubs her temples roughly, thinking that if she rubbed hard enough she could force the headache out of her head. She's had no luck the past two hours.
"So what do we do? Just wait for them to get back to us?" Hope asks coldly.
"Actually", Carli says, her back turning to everyone as she displays what looks like a webcam in the large screen at the front of the room, "I managed to get the cams on their helmets working so we have a live stream feed of what they're seeing"
She turns to the table in front of the wall, tapping around it lightly, "Tobin? Can you hear me?"
There's a moment of static silence, but eventually Tobins lazy voice cracks through the speakers in the room, "Loud and clear Cap, can you see everything clearly?"
"Well I can't really see anything but a lot of darkness and trees if that's what you mean", Carli says matter of factly.
"Oh, right, sorry", the camera shifts down to Tobins wrist where she taps around until the live feed turns to night vision, everything clearer now.
Kelley didn't know what she expected to see with the Atlas base, but she definitely wasn't expecting to see so many lights and such a tall wall. It had to be at least eight stories tall, and there were no ledges around it or anything. Just a plain, flat, cemented wall.
"I've managed to hijack our cloaks to shift with our movement, as long as we stay still or move really slowly we're invisible to the naked eye. We're gonna try to scale the wall with grapples, the only entrance is extremely guarded and there's no way we'd be able to get past it, even with the cloaks", Tobin explains, practically whispering into her mic.
"What are you gonna do once you scale it? It looks like it just goes straight over"
"We're guessing that it's just flat ground on the other side, so we're probably gonna have to scale the other side as quickly as possible and find a place that isn't being guarded quite as heavily"
"Did you remember to silence your helmets?" Kelley asks abruptly, not wanting them to get caught for something so simple.
"Yes, mom, I remembered to do that. If I hadn't we'd be dead by now"
Kelley relaxes, leaving the rest of the talking to Carli and Becky. She doesn't realize the absence of Alex until she feels a body sink into the chair next to her, smelling strongly of ocean and vanilla.
"What's going on?"
"Carli got their live cams to work, we don't have a plan and we're trying to get as much intel as possible"
"Which one is Tobins?"
Kelley chuckles, "The middle one"
They both sit and watch as the three shoot their grapples onto the top of the wall, immediately jumping and practically running up the wall. When they reach the top they don't get an immediate view of the base there's a space between each side that looks like it's meant for sharpshooting or guard watching, it reminds Kelley of the wall back at Reign. It takes them a minute to unhook their grapples and get themselves situated again, but once they head to the other side the air grows thick and heavy.
The land is flat, the only buildings farther back to the left and scattered around the middle. But it's not empty, hundreds of tanks and extremely advanced looking war machines are lined up perfectly in the flat dirt. There's even more soldiers walking around, some checking on the machines and some doing drills with their respective teams.
The three are equally as quiet as everyone else, Kelley guesses no one knows exactly what to say.
That is until Carli clears her throats and turns to everyone in the room.
"We need a plan. Pronto"
////
"Julie you do realize that what you're doing is extremely dangerous right? You could die, or even worse paralyze yourself"
"How is paralyzing myself worse than dying"
"You're a solider, you're meant to move around and do things. Being paralyzed would keep you from doing that for the rest of your life. And i'm sure dying means you go wherever you go without the injuries you've sustained so far"
"...Point proven"
Julie slides off the examination table, throwing herself into her crutches and walking to the other side of the room where her doctor, Christie, is.
"But you've also proven my point even further. I'm a soldier, i'm meant to move, and I have to help find Christen some way or another. But I can't just sit around watching everyone argue over what they think is the best plan and what isn't. We need to fight, bring some gun power to them instead of waiting. And what about Christen? I cant just leave her like a sitting duck, they could be torturing her or something for information. Lord knows they wouldn't just welcome her back into the ranks of Atlas!"
Christie is silent, her mouth twisted as she thinks.
"Well, this isn't really a 50/50 chance thing. We can do it, the risk is more on the battlefield or wherever you go that can get you hurt again"
"I don't want it as a permanent thing, I just want to help get Christen back and then I'll come back and do all the therapy you want me to do"
Christie sighs heavily, "Alright. Let's go get you fitted then"
Julie can only half contain her excitement, a large smile plastered on her face as she walks out of the room with Christie.
////
Tobin, Pinoe, and Mal have been wandering around the base for an hour now, only getting almost caught once. They've gotten past all the tanks and machines and more into the buildings. They're trying to find the room Christen is being held in whilst finding weak points in the base. Everyone has been talking and they've narrowed the plan down to either an inside infiltration or planting a bomb at the middle of the base.
It's a ridiculously large place too, Hope guesses that it's their main headquarters. Not that the tanks and extremely large armed force didn't give that away at first. But it's definitely their main source of power, hitting it would put a significant amount of damage on the entire Atlas company. There's no civilians either, which is a huge plus to Hope since she likes the idea of a bomb more.
"We're coming up on older buildings, I think a couple of them have basements judging by the windows near the floor. Christen could be in one of them", Tobins voice shakes Hope from her thoughts, her head flinging up to look at the three screens.
Sure enough, the buildings they're looking at are definitely older than the ones closer to the middle of the base. They're made more out of brick and cinder block instead of glass and steel. There's tiny windows near the ground, something that definitely wasn't on the other buildings.
"Are you getting any signals? If they haven't stripped her from her under armor she should have a locator", Alex explains, one of the first things she's said out loud today.
Tobins voice turns disappointed, "No, Im not getting anything. I'm sorry Lex"
"It's fine, just keep looking"
Hope turns her attention towards Alex, trying to determine if it really is fine. There's nothing off about her, besides the fact that she seems exhausted. But everyone is tired, she would expect that. She's got her hair tied up and she's wearing one of Tobins sweaters and old soccer shorts, only thing different is she's not wearing her pink pre wrap and she's biting her nails. Which is obviously her being nervous about finding Christen, Hope would be the same way if her brother got captured by an enemy and she didn't know where he was.
"Holy shit, Tobin look", all attention turns to the screens where they can see Pinoe pointing to something in the distance.
Tobin's visor zooms in closer to a more lit area in the distance. There's two soldiers carrying - well, more like dragging - someone ok the sidewalk to a different building. The more Tobin zooms in the more the person looks like Christen, but it barely looks like her. Her hair is in a very loose, messy ponytail, her face is sunken in and there's cuts all over her face. She looks extremely weak, obviously not even strong enough to walk with the soldiers. Her clothing is battered and torn, blood stains cover most of the shirt and there's clear restraint marks on her wrists and ankles.
"Fuck, she's being tortured Tobin you have to get her out of there!" Alex practically screams, cutting the silence.
"We don't have the resources to do that right now Alex, im sorry", Carli says for Tobin, clearly not happy having to say it though.
"You're kidding! Carli look at her! They're probably torturing her to no end! What about her heart condition? She could be dying and they wouldn't know it, we have to get her out of there!" There's tears falling freely down Alex's face now.
"Lex", Tobins voice is soft, Hope sees Alex's demeanor change almost immediately, "We'll get her out. I promise. We just can't today, i'm sorry"
"There has to be something you can do, make it easier for us to get to her or something?" Her voice is calmer now.
Tobin is silent, her visor still fixed on Chris being dragged away into a building slightly smaller than the rest. She zooms back out when they get into the building, her view turning to a very tiny looking Mal.
"Tobin?" Carli asks, wanting to know what she's thinking before she goes to do it.
But she doesn't reply, and all of a sudden she cuts her mic off.
"Tobin", its more of a command now, Hope grows anxious as she watches Tobin and Mal exchange in a silent conversation.
They all watch as Tobin hands Mal what looks like a small locator and what Hope recognizes as a syringe of stimulant. Hope used to have to give those to her new recruits who couldn't keep up with the seniors, or to anyone they rescued that was on the verge of malnutrition and hunger.
Tobin's view changes back and forth between the building Christen was taken in to Mal, until Mal furiously nods, turns her cloak back on, and practically sprints towards the building.
Tobin's mic crackles back on, her voice sounding commanding and confident, "Pinoe and I are going to continue looking around. I gave Mal an edible tracker and some stimulant to keep Christen going for three days minimum, it'll give us time to come up with a solid plan without her dying on us and we'll be able to find her easily when we get back"
"It's not what you did I'm worried about Tobin, but you sent Mal. Are you sure she can do it?"
"It's for her sister, she can do anything if it depends on her life"
////
"In, tracker, syringe, neck, out"
"In, tracker, syringe, neck, out"
"In, tracker, syringe, neck, out"
Mal kept repeating the words Tobin had said to her over and over again, fearing she might forget once she got to Christen.
She managed to slip inside after a group of soldiers had swung the door open, the only problem was the building was a lot bigger than she imagined it would be. It was divided straight down the middle by a long, dimly lit hall. There were multiple doors on each side, all thick and steel with tiny holes at the top to see inside. There was also a set of stairs that went up and down, Mal didn't know where she should start looking.
The other soldiers that had dragged Christen in hadn't come back out yet, so she debated on waiting for them to come back out. But she couldn't just sit and wait, especially if they were torturing her as she waited.
She quickly checks all the room on the first floor, peeping through the tiny slit in the doors but has no luck in finding Christen. She makes her way down the stairs where it's even darker, she has to flip to her night vision to see clearly.
This hall is slightly shorter than the one above, there's only three doors and they're heavily locked and thick. Mal can hear voices coming from the room directly in front of her, she sprints over to it and much to her dismay Christen is splayed across the floor with the two soldiers standing over her. She can't make out what they're saying, just that it's pointless to say anything because Christen is very clearly passed out.
And Mal is ver clearly angry. It breaks her heart to see Christen so beaten and torn, she hasn't seen her like that in years. She knows her sister is strong and that she'll make it through this, but Mal can't help but feel a heaviness in her heart. She's never been a person to genuinely wish pain or death upon anyone else, but right now as she watches the two soldiers spit at her she can't help but hope that they end up dead.
Seeing Christen like that brings up a lot of memories for Mal, she's almost too lost in her thoughts to notice the two soldiers walking back to the door. She quickly backs up and presses herself against the dark wall, holding her breath as the soldiers pass by. She waits until they're up the stairs and she hears the front door open and close to unlatch everything on the door and swing it open.
To her surprise, Christen quickly jumps off the floor and scrambles back to the wall, almost shielding herself with her arms.
"Please, no more today", her voice is weak and trembly, it breaks Mal's heart even more.
She scrambles to turn her cloak off, taking off her helmet so Christen doesn't think some bigger soldier has come to torture her.
"Chris, Chris it's me, Mal", she scrambles out, practically sprinting to the wall and taking out the supplies Tobin gave her.
"Mal? What are you doing here? How'd you get here?" Christens voice is croakey and dry , she obviously hasn't been given any water recently.
"I'm sorry Chris, shit i'm so sorry"
"What? Why? You're here"
A single tear rolls down Mal's cheek, "We can't- we can't rescue you today. We didn't think that- that we'd find you or that you'd be here we were just on a stupid scouting mission and-"
"Mal", her voice is soft and assuring, "It's okay. I get it. You know where I am now, just please tell me you have a plan"
Mal's face turns down, "Last I heard we couldn't come up with anything solid"
Christen sighs heavily and scoots up closer to the wall, wincing as she does.
"Oh shit, right!"
She pulls the syringe out of her pocket, along with the tracker and a tiny canister of water.
"Here, take this. It's an edible tracker. If you get moved or we can't find you right away when we attack we can find you with it. And I don't exactly know what's in this, but Tobin told me it would hold you up for at least three days", she flicks at the syringe and carefully takes Christens arm, "Something about stimulant and liquid protein or something like that"
Christen is hesitant as the syringe enters her skin, Mal tries her hardest to be gentle with her sister since she's so obviously been beaten up.
"What all have they done?" She asks out of curiosity.
"I don't remember to be honest. Just a lot of beating and cutting and shock therapy. I think they even water boarded me at one point but I can handle it Mal, don't worry. Just go get a plan started and take down those wretched sons of bitches"
Christen smiles, but it's weak. Mal didn't think she could get any sadder but she does.
"Im sorry Chris, I really am", she softly hugs her sister, trying to get as much contact as possible before she inevitably has to leave.
"It's okay Mal, I understand. I can hold off. Just be quick okay?"
Mal nods her head vigorously, quickly standing up and wiping the tears from her face. It takes all the strength in her body to turn around and head back out of the door, knowing that come tomorrow Christen is gonna be alone and being tortured again. She's crying furiously, she doesn't hold back her tears anymore, especially when she hears Christen yell to you.
"I love you Mal, go kick some Atlas butt"
////
"It's the only way"
"No! No it is not the only way!"
"We can't get a team inside there's no way-", Carli starts but Tobin snaps at her.
"There is always a way, Carli"
"Tobin please-", Alex tries also but Tobin snaps again.
"NO, no you can't just drop a nuclear bomb where innocent people are!"
"No one in there is innocent Tobin, Im living proof of it"
"Exactly! You were there and you're innocent now and you're fighting against Atlas, you're just proving my point even more"
Alex scoffs, "I am nowhere near innocent"
"Oh please, if you were told there'd be a nuclear bomb coming down on you you'd plead innocent", Tobin says mockingly, rolling her eyes.
She can't see it, but Alex's fists clench, "No Tobin I wouldn't! I wouldn't because I did terrible things and I didn't stop them when I could have! You think I got those burns just for torture? No, I got them because I killed people. Hundreds of innocent people who didn't deserve any of it. If they told me there'd be a bomb I'd pray for them to send it faster"
Tobin is shocked, and so is everyone else she can see in the conference room.
She doesn't really know what to say, Alex has never told her why she had those marks and she wasn't going to push for an answer until she was ready. But the things Alex did then, they forced her to do that. She's been told enough about Atlas to know Alex would never do anything like that willingly.
"Alex, I-"
"No", she cuts her off, pain evident in her voice, "I'm not going to discuss this with you right now. You can stand and tell us that this isn't a good idea but we out vote you, okay? I'm with this, Atlas did things that I want revenge for and I'm not about to lose you to some nuclear war gone wrong right when things are starting to be okay"
She marches out of the room with tears streaming down her face, leaving Tobin and everyone else stunned to silence. There's no movement, not for a while. Everyone is just standing there, taking in everything. Tobin can feel a tear run down her cheek, she knows she should go after Alex but what would she say? I'm sorry? For what? What would she be sorry for? Putting other people's lives before hers? She wasn't going to apologize for that, that's just who she is. She's selfless, she doesn't like death or killing or the war. She just wants to survive.
But a part of her knows Alex is right. The Atlas company being destroyed would be worth it. But that's so many people dying, so many deaths on her hands and she doesn't know if she could handle it. She's already killed too many people for her liking, and yeah, war takes sacrifices but this is a really, really big sacrifice.
And what's it all worth? The company would be taken down, Sentinel could start rebuilding America and the war would technically be over. There'd be no nuclear threats, no more fighting, no more death. Tobin could be happy, or at least try to be happy and in a house with Alex.
Alex. God, that's all she thinks about. Alex this, Alex that. The solider has been on her mind 24/7 ever since she laid eyes on her and it's starting to drive her insane. Her beautiful blue eyes, her stupid pink prewrap that she seems to never run out of, her raspy voice and everything about her.
Tobin would walk through a glass desert to be with Alex. She'd do anything for her, and maybe she was just overreacting because that's a lot of lives to be rid of but Alex is too special to her. She didn't even expect to be put through all the of this when she went to that Atlas base. She was only expecting to find rubble and no data, not a girlfriend who tried to kill her the first time they saw each other.
It's kind of funny, the way everything is starting to work out. The more Tobin thinks about what her life would be like without Alex the more she starts doubting she'd even be alive. If Alex hadn't been there when she started remembering Lauren she'd probably still be back at base, locked up in her unit and starving herself. She wouldn't have had the strength to go find Ali and Ash, she wouldn't have the strength to even deal with this mission. And here she was, pushing past all of the stress because she just wants to keep Alex alive.
Tobin loves Alex, really loves her and the more she thinks about it the more she realizes hundreds of deaths for peace would be worth it.
And she was definitely not about to end this war on a note like this. They hadn't even talked after their first time, it just happened and they got right back up the next morning to get back to work. A part of Tobin knows that's what is gonna come with being with Alex during a war, but another part of her wishes they had talked.
"Tobin?" Carli's voice cracks back through her earpiece, shaking her from her thoughts.
"Requesting pick up", she says plainly, not wanting to do this right now, "Please"
Megan and Mal take that as a sign to grab their grapples back out, the three of them slowly making their way back up and over to the other side.
No words are exchanged for the remainder of the mission. They silently make it through the woods and back to the pick up area where Ash is waiting in her silent helicopter. When Tobin slides into the seat next to Ash the ex-keeper looks at her expectantly.
"You okay dude?"
Tobin sighs, "I'm fine. Let's just go home"
It's the only thing she can say right now.