Bleed, Patch, And Keep Moving - An Apex Legends Story

Chapter 122 Beauty and Pain

Everyone began to unbuckle and stretch, which broke Ajay's staring contest with Loba. There was some chatter amongst a few of the Legends, breaking some of the tension but it wasn't enough. Everyone was still treading lightly around Ajay and the whole situation on the ship. She could hear it in their voices, but a sliver of doubt betrayed her. She thought that maybe they were all tired, which soon spiraled into more doubtful thoughts. Tired of fighting, following orders, the game, their jobs, or maybe they were just tired of her.

As soon as Loba stood up Ajay did as well and grabbed Loba by her wrist and yanked her towards the unopened hatch at the back of the dropship. Loba barely had any time to react and nearly tripped as she was being pulled, "Hey! What are you doing?! Release me!" Her voice was no longer seductive but instead angry. Loba stopped as Ajay pulled her to the back of the ship by her wrist. "I know what ya need."

Ajay smirked and punched the emergency door release button with the side of her fisted right hand. She didn't bother to look at Loba. She didn't even bother to say a word to her as the hatch opened releasing a warning through the overhead speakers. Ajay was not listening to the warning or to anyone, she was on a mission. Without skipping a beat Ajay pulled Loba by her wrist, swinging her around to face her. She gripped onto Loba tightly as the wind whipped against Loba's back and Ajay's face. Then, without warning, Ajay simply released Loba's wrist and pushed her straight out of the ship.

There was an almost deafening silence in the ship, aside from the air whooshing into the ship, pulling at the Legends. The shock of what Ajay had just done had staggered everyone to a complete halt. The Legends were at a loss for words, which was fine by Ajay. She was emotionally drained and had nothing left to have some heart-to-heart conversation with anyone about her feelings.

Shortly after pushing Loba out of the ship Ajay jumped out to follow her. As she leapt out, she could hear Anita yelling, "What the hell! We're not even close to the drop yet!" Ajay ignored Anita because she already knew that they were nowhere near the drop zone. She also knew that they were not going to land in the arena, just on the outskirts of it, which is exactly what she planned.

Time was not on Ajay's side as she needed to catch up to Loba, and fast. She pressed her limbs close to her body and tried to make herself as aerodynamic as she could. The pit of her stomach was a jumbled mess as her brain tried to weigh the odds of Octavio chasing after her, but she hoped for his sake that he didn't. To her surprise Octavio didn't follow, and she was glad because she didn't want him to see what came next. She had unfinished business with Loba, and she was going to make sure she tied up loose ends before Loba could make another run for it and leave everyone else in the aftermath of her destruction.

The push out of the dropship was earlier than the ship could make it to the actual arena. As soon as the ship entered the arena without Ajay and Loba, the announcement went off about their deaths. Just after the announcement finished both Ajay and Loba were reanimated into a different dropship than the one that they were previously on. Eventually the ship would take them back to HQ, but they would have to wait for all of the other Legends to finish the match.

Ajay always wondered if the same ship that dropped them into the arena was the same ship that picked them up. She now had her answer, it wasn't. It looked identical and it probably was the same model, however, everything was clean and in its place. To further confirm her dropship suspicion, she knew that if this was indeed the same ship that they flew in on, then the others would still be aboard.

They both hit the floor as soon as they reanimated; Loba on her face and Ajay on her back. One right next to the other. Ajay had been too deep in thought about the dropship situation and almost forgot why she was even in the damn ship so early. She quickly shook off the dazed feeling and rolled over on top of Loba, placing all of her weight on the curvy woman. Loba went to reach for her bracelet on her left wrist, but Ajay intervened by grabbing her wrist, ripping the bracelet off, and throwing it to the other side of the ship.

The bracelet, which was more like a bangle, clanked against the inside of the ship a few times, bouncing before landing far from either of their reach. Loba's other hand was extended, reaching outward towards her precious jewelry. Ajay took her other wrist and locked both of Loba's arms behind her back, trying to limit any mobility from the woman beneath her. Loba didn't seem to put up any struggle, but Ajay thought better of her and had a hunch that it was just an act, so she kept her pinned tightly beneath her.

The hum of the ship's engines was a white noise in the vast silence that surrounded both of them. Ajay knew that she didn't have much time before everyone would be reappearing in the ship, so she twisted Loba's left arm, which left an echo of screams through the silence. "You will not break me! Nobody can." Loba shouted after she was done screaming from the pain.

"Ya psycho bitch. What is ya problem! Ya almost got everyone killed." Loba gritted her teeth but didn't answer. Once again, Ajay was running on borrowed arena time. She twisted Loba's arm further, feeling a great amount of tension, she stopped but didn't pull back. They both knew that if she twisted Loba's arm any further that it would pop out of place or break.

Loba huffed, "You ruined everything! Everything!" She held back tears as she yelled at Ajay, who could hear the pain in Loba's voice. Ajay wanted to roll her eyes, but she held back the urge. She was still so angry. She was literally missing parts of her memory because of Loba. "Wait... no." The voice in the back of her head shouted at her, reminding her that it was her own deal, her own fault. However, the logical voice in Ajay's brain reminded her that Loba nearly decimated all of the Legends, and for what? A fucking artifact.

Ajay leaned down and spoke in a low tone of voice into Loba's ear, "Speak. Quickly." Her breath was hot against Loba's neck and Ajay squeezed just a bit harder on Loba's arm to remind her who had control. Loba started to struggle but then stopped in defeat, "That was El Demonio's head. He wants to die, but he has to have his head back to do it. I was going to give it back to him in the match today. After I killed him in the match, I was going to slide the head into his inventory via my black market so no one would know. That way after the match I could kill the damned thing that killed my parents! And you ruined it! You ruined all of it."

As Loba finished, Ajay couldn't help but feel that she was leaving something out, "Don you still have his head?" Loba buckled underneath her as Ajay had unintentionally released her grip but quickly regained control. "No, when you pushed me, the interface of my HUD scrambled and I lost my inventory. It's gone forever now!" Tears streamed down the side of Loba's face.

Ajay sighed, slid off of Loba and sat down next to her. Loba slowly sat up, as if she was afraid to make any sudden or quick movements. Ajay draped her arms over her knees and hung her head. As much damage as Loba had done, she too wanted him dead. He was going to kill her; he was going to kill everyone, but something was still itching, begging her to ask more questions. "Why didn't ya just ask us for help and how could ya trust him. What if he got his head back and..."

The pain first spiked in the back of her head when Ajay realized that her head had hit the ship floor and now Loba was on top of her, pinning her down. "You!" Ajay could feel and hear the bones in her nose crack as Loba formed a fist that dazzled from her rings and punched her. "Ruined!" Another hit from Loba and blood splattered from Ajay's mouth against the ship's seats. "Everything!" Loba went to throw another punch but was immediately pulled off of Ajay by Elliot and Makoa.

They held Loba back as Ajay rolled to her side and coughed out blood that had pooled in her mouth. She was still more concerned about everyone's safety and getting the answers to her questions, than about herself right now. She never did get the answers to her questions, especially the most pressing one about the head, and she knew that she might never get those answers. But she knew in her gut they Loba was lying, and it wasn't just about the head. The only answer she truly got was screaming in the mind of her head, "Ya ruined everyting."