Arknights One Shots

Fire (Ifrit, Red, Shaw)

"Ugh! Why did Doctor have to give us the same stupid project!" She snapped at Projekt Red.

"Red doesn't mind growing plant, wants to do good." Red was cradling the small pot in her arms, eyeing the soil hopefully like she expected a sprout to suddenly pop up from it.

But that's not how plants work. They're so freaking slow.

"Well I do. So boring, stupid Doctor thinks this will be fun." She slouched in her seat. Both of them were sitting at desks. Neither of them were wooden, no one at Rhodes Island would be dumb enough to make that mistake. The metallic alloy would not burn to cinders no matter how hard she tried. The same was not true for the multiple burnt papers tossed in the trash. They stockpiled until the end of the week before promptly being thrown in the incinerator.

"Red thinks it will be fun." The hunting wolf murmured quietly. It was so low Ifrit almost missed it. But she didn't, and of course she was annoyed.

"Well that's because you looooovvve sucking up." Ifrit muttered. "Whereas I'll just be thankful for this project to be over." She got up, ready to leave. Class was no longer in session anyways, so there was no point in socializing to her.

"Hmmm." Red followed suit behind her, as silent as the hunter she claimed to be. More times then she was willing to admit had resulted in jump scares from Red catching her off guard.

"What?" She asked. Anger prickled at the back of her mind; an old friend.

"Isn't Doctor your friend?"

The question was so out of the blue, like a ice cold bucket of water dumped on her head. Contrary to popular belief, Ifrit did like ice and freezing, especially when it meant she wouldn't have to fear burning others for a stretch of time. It was hard living life with the ever present fear you might combust suddenly. She tried to keep it under control but . . .

Who was she kidding? The fire in her was impossible to fully tame.

"Uh. Well . . ."

"Well what?"

Red's gaze was imploring, expectant almost. Ifrit hated it when people expected things from her, it was so annoying. "I guess Doctor and I are friends." Admittedly, the two had gotten off to a rocky start when they first met. Ifrit had very low opinions on Doctors (outside of Silence of course) and so that bias had unsurprisingly carried over when she arrived at Rhodes. It was only once she realized the masked guy had her best interests in mind that she was able to consider him a friend. In truth, she respected him and his praise would mean something important to her, the same way Silence's would.

And that was why she would do this homework, even if it was dumb.

Just think of how happy Doctor will be when this plant is grown.

Ifrit pictured the Doctor smiling at her, offering his congratulations. Heck, if she did a good enough job maybe Silence would notice too. And if I'm really lucky . . . so will Saria. She sighed happily to herself. That would be a dream come true.

She was broken out of her musings by a worried grunt. Projekt Red was growling, hands hugging her plant protectively to her stomach. Ifrit resisted the urge to glare. Why couldn't Doctor give her a classmate who was normal?

"What is it?"

"Ifrit is burning."

It took two seconds for those words to settle in. And another two for her to find that she was indeed burning, though it wasn't of her own doing. As the two young operators had been walking to the door, the perfectly safe flamethrower she wore all the time had brushed up against something and unhelpfully turned on. The flames were slow but promised nothing but trouble, traveling up her shirt and also onto the walls. The walls that did not burn but could carry the troublesome heat.

"GAAAH! Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" She spun around wildly, trying to get the flames to stop. The flamethrower wasn't spilling flames anymore, but the red tongues continued licking up her clothes. They were fireproof —had to be for someone like her— but there was no telling what in the room would soon be if this continued.

"I tried. Ifrit wasn't listening earlier."

Red's admission did little to settle the panic building up in her chest. She was brilliant when it came to using fire, had the longest range of pretty much any operator. But that doesn't mean I have control. Not like this. It was something she was always aware of, like how nine times out of ten the blob of a person in her peripheral vision would be another dumb, lab coat wearing Doctor.

"Go away! Go away! GO AWAY!" Ifrit yelled as she patted down the fire, that continued to refuse to listen. Distantly, she recognized Red had said something, but had little clue as to what it was. Her eyes were transfixed on the growing flames, the fire a prime reminder of why she came to Rhodes Island in the first place.

"Here you'll finally be able to gain control."

Silence's words were a hope she had clung to during days of despair, where her dreams were only nightmares and her heart plummeted with the cold realization that Saria would not be returning to Rhine Labs. Saria, the sole person who had been able to save her last time she went out of control. This time the fire wasn't even her fault and yet the shame and panic continued to crescendo inside her. Her mouth opened in a silent scream as the world became a blaze of heat. Her arts were activating, swallowing her whole in a cocoon of fire.

"Help . . . me . . ." She could hear her voice and almost didn't recognize it from how terrified it sounded.

Thankfully, someone had been listening.

The door slammed open.

A small woman came into view, a little squirrel that probably came up to her waist height. She stood beside Red, toting what looked to be a ginormous water pump/hose.

"Afirehasbeenreported.Ihavecometosavethoseinperil.OperatorsIfritandRedwillbealright."

The blast of water was just the wake up call she needed from the nightmarish imaginations of her troubled mind. Ifrit sputtered as pressurized water collided with her. It hit her chest and spread all over to every single orifice. The chill seeped into her bones as the flames died. Mouth gaping wide, Ifrit swallowed lungfuls of the cold water as she fell to the floor. And just as quickly as the water had come it had went away, taking the water with it. Ifrit fell to the ground in a sitting position as her legs gave out and exhaustion took hold in place of panic.

Shaw ran over to her, closely followed by Ifrit. Her firefighter uniform hugged her small frame, the stripes on it obnoxiously bright like traffic cones. "IsIfritokay?Thefireisout."

She could hardly understand what the Lungmen firefighter was saying, so Ifrit was thankful that Red filled in the blanks, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We are worried. Are you okay?"

The memories of that terrible day still lurked in her mind, but right now . . .

"I'm okay. Thanks." She told them, and meant it.