Sometimes, she forgets. It is hard to remember. Not that she really tries, honestly. The smell of smoke, orange flames dancing like vignettes at the corners of her vision, Lucia's confusion, because why would they do this to us, hermana? Reyna had never been able to answer that — human cruelty, maybe, or perhaps greed, among other things. Human cruelty, ironically, that gave her her blessing.
It feels more like a curse now, though.
She's long scared away anybody who even wanted to use the simulation arena, gripping her rifle with an intensity and a desperation that made her sick, breathing in heavily, like she were drowning. And truthfully, it does feel like she is drowning.
It has been ages since she had gotten any life energy, and the hunger is gnawing at her constantly now, intruding her mind and pushing away any logical train of thought. She cannot feast, for she had made a contract not to kill anyone outside any of the Protocol's missions for life energy — she's really, really close to regretting that; but she has no choice. For Lucia, she'll hold on even if it kills her.
Picturing the bots as human does help, and though she's left frustratingly dry after every target she takes down, it helps quench the blood thirst just a little.
There's cold sweat on her skin. She's acutely aware of how her hair is plastered to her forehead, neck and shoulders as she whirls around, placing a clean shot through a robot's head as it peeks the corner. The maze layout of the arena isn't helping either — it makes Reyna feel like a caged, pacing beast, makes the hairs on her skin prickle in anxiety and discomfort.
She can feel the very tip of her canines dig into her bottom lip with how hard she's gritting her teeth, and the blood that spurts from the wound does nothing to soothe her. Why would it, when there's so little life energy left in her? Not even Reyna can save herself if she tried.
Chingas, she should find a damned solution to this problem if it keeps cropping up. Brimstone had wanted to lay low after their previous mission, what with Kingdom authorities looking high and low for the two young agents that were allegedly responsible for Venice—Jett and Phoenix, was it?—to bring them into custody (not counting their lovely adventures in the Caribbean with KAY/O). Cypher was working on a solution, but till then, Protocol's high commander had made it clear that he didn't want anyone stepping off the island. That meant no food for Reyna, ultimately. None for Lucia either, though Reyna had made sure to siphon off all the life energy she had gathered thus far into the contraption keeping her sister alive. She had been horribly tempted to take just one drop—but no. Lucia needed it more.
At the end of the day, the both of them were just fodder, prisoner to the Protocol's whims and motives.
Just like how they were for Kingdom. Nothing has changed. Maybe she had made a decision that will kill them both, still trapped in a cycle of human greed. Greed...maybe that's the answer she should have given to Lucia.
Her arms feel weak and her legs are jelly as she slowly peeks a corner which she clumsily clears, not checking a deeper, better hidden angle to the far right.
She's down before she knows it — a sniper shot to the head, awfully reminiscent of how she had died just a few weeks ago at Venice. An alarm blares, the maze's walls drop in a series of pixels, and a recorded voice—Sage's voice—announces through the speakers that the simulation is over. Her score is displayed on the screen at the far end of the room, but she doesn't even have the energy to lift her gaze up to see.
Life energy. She needs it. Now.
Reyna falls to her knees, dropping her rifle God-knows-where, and slumps over entirely. The room spins. It threatens to swallow her to the deepest pits of hell where she belongs — it's cold, so cold. Her eyelids flutter close, her fingers twitch, her nails dig into the cool metal of the floor, her mouth is dry. Oh, if Lucia ever saw her like this...
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GODSENT | reyge
FanfictionIt isn't unusual for Reyna to attend a Cinco de Mayo party, so she doesn't understand the puzzled, disgruntled looks being sent her way when she's just standing here, by one of the large, thick pillars holding up the hotel. Perfectly innocent, keepi...