Beneath the Ice: An Among Us Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Four: Pull the Cord

Indigo was only slightly aware of what was going on, her vision flashing from the mindspace to the real world. Which was probably why she was stunned when Dax disengaged and slashed a tentacle at her.

Thankfully, Tal made her step back just in the nick of time, but still. She hadn't bothered to try and completely sync after the first time, out of fear or anger, she wasn't completely sure, but she still didn't practice syncing.

Which would probably be her downfall, but whatever. They had bigger things to worry about, such as staying alive for the next ten minutes.

She watched as Dax slashed again at Justice, who was somehow there, wielding a knife.

God damnit! Indigo cursed, deflecting the blow with one of her own tentacles, Justice! If you die, I'll kill you again!

"AAAAAHHHH-" Cinnabar's voice yelled, coming from Indigo's right. Out of her peripheral vision, she saw the Medical Officer charging towards them with a hypospray in one hand and a glass vial of hydrogen peroxide in another. She hurled the vial at Forte's face, but it was deflected by a tentacle.

Dax growled and slapped Cinnabar across the side of her helmet, throwing her off course and knocking her unconscious. Or maybe she was dead. With all that was going on, Indigo wasn't sure.

Pretty sure Cinnabar wasn't dead, though. Indigo wasn't sure how long it took for a dead person to become a ghost, but Epsilon turned pretty fast.

Speaking of, Indigo caught a glance of Epsilon in the corner of the room, a worried look on his face and watching the proceedings with intensity. The same was for Omega, Beta, and Odyssey. Winger was discussing something with Sunset, but Luna and Wren were nowhere to be seen. Probably watching over Petri and Clasher.

Justice lunged forward and the motion brought Indigo's attention back to what was going on. She brought the knife down and grazed a tentacle. In response, Dax tried to stab a tentacle at her, but Indigo stopped it with a hand.

"Don't you dare," Indigo growled. In the mindspace, Tal was still keeping up the barrage on Dax, which was the reason why he wasn't attacking as fast as he would have been.

Syncing was something that was completely overpowered, but awesome. If you could tolerate the headache and exhaustion that came with it. Indigo would deal with those consequences later, when she wasn't about to die.

Dax scowled and pushed harder in the mindspace. Since he and Forte weren't willing to work together, they couldn't sync, which made things a lot easier. Tal and Indigo only had to deal with one mind instead of two.

Tal pushed back while Indigo stabbed several tentacles at Dax, aiming to restrain him. Dax stopped them, but Tal got an advantage in the mindspace.

Still holding on to the tentacle, Indigo pulled Dax forward and slammed a fist into his face. It didn't seem to have an affect on Dax, but it annoyed him long enough for Justice to get in another slash of the knife, the blade cutting deeply into Forte's flesh.

Indigo felt a twinge of guilt, but the only thing that Forte would be able to feel would be a headache, and the pain from that was pretty constant—agonizing.

(Yes, there was a time when Indigo and Tal clashed, but hey, they were together until Indigo died and since none of them wanted to have to deal with someone they hated twenty-four/seven, they came to a compromise and an agreement. A somewhat-agreement. Whatever.)

In any case, it hurt Dax, and that was what they were trying to do. Justice strafed back just as Dax lashed out again with a tentacle. Indigo stopped it again before it could connect, but that opened up her defenses to be stabbed in the stomach.

The blow shocked her so much that even Tal hesitated, and Dax took advantage of that by grasping at Indigo's mind, trying to control any part he could and causing Indigo to cry out in agony and fall to her knees. In the process of that, her mind was getting ripped to shreds, she couldn't even move as Dax started to stab again, a surely fatal blow-

Dax stopped in mid-air, his face contorting in horror. The tentacles retracted and he fell forward, the knife sticking out of the back of his head.

Unable to get there in time, to avoid the tentacles that would have stabbed at her, Justice had thrown the knife with so much force that it even managed to burst through the helmet and kill Dax.

At least, Indigo hoped it had stabbed the symbiont. All she could feel was numbness as she started to tip over, darkness gathering at the edges of her vision as Justice started to run over, shouting Indigo's name and something that sounded like a threat.

Probably something along the lines of 'if you die, I'll kill you again.' Oh God, Indigo remembered why she loved Justice so much. She had to smile as she hit the ground, and everything went black.

--------------------------------------

Dax was infuriated and in pain, roaring his agony in Forte's mind.

Forte, however, was feeling almost weightless, the pain not feeling like pain anymore. He knew he was dying, but couldn't help but feel at peace.

His vision flickered back to what he was actually seeing, which was the floor of O2. He faintly heard his own ragged breath taking one final gulp of air.

Forte held that breath, a part of him trying desperately to hold on to life for as long as possible. But he knew that would never happen. The wound was far too grievous. His brain would cease to send out impulses to his heart and lungs and then everything would stop.

If only he could exhale and get it over with! But his body didn't want to. Stupid human impulses to live. He had nothing left to live for.

His friends were dead, his future was ruined. So why was he fighting so hard?

Well, was Dax still alive? Forte listened for a moment, but the agonized screams had stopped, and Forte's mind felt clearer than it had been in weeks.

"You can let go now," a soft voice said in Forte's ear. Beta, maybe? "You've done all you needed to do."

"Forte, let go... you don't need to hold out anymore. Let go..." Odyssey?

Forte started to panic slightly, the human part of him keeping a tighter grip on life. Did he do all of what he needed to do? What if Dax was somehow still alive? Would he take over Captain Foster or Cinnabar? What would they do if that was the case? What if-

"God, kid, whatever thoughts are going through your mind, you don't need to worry about them. If worse comes to worse, they'll deal with it, they'll be able to work it out. You did good, though seeing Indigo suffer the same wound as I did before I died seems to be a strike of fate, isn't it?"

Oh no, Commander Harrison. Did Forte kill her as well? Did he take another life before his ended?

"She's not dead yet, if that's what you're wondering," Winger whispered. "You did well, better than what I could have did. You know, I hear Odyssey might still be able to make some of those dishes here in death..."

"Yeah, maybe, but I call dibs on the sponge cake," Omega said.

Somehow, hilariously, that gave Forte the strength to let go.

His muscles relaxed and he let his final breath be swept away into the land of Polus.

A/N: We're so close to the end, everyone! One more chapter and then this is it! I gotta say, I'm so excited! The chapter will probably be out within the next three days (assuming something called life doesn't get in the way)!

Take care!

-Northwind