In the End

Loba was off her game during the match, and it was evident to her team; specifically to Bangalore who decided to come and question her after they’d been patched up in the infirmary. They didn’t get along too well, but had been getting better at not being so hostile both on and off the field- but even that didn’t stop Anita from having slight anxiety over going to talk to the other woman. She lifted her hand, fingers curled so that the knuckles of her index and middle finger protruded farther than the rest, hesitantly tapping them against the door, the sound echoing through the hallway.
“Hey, Loba, it’s me- Anita. Can we talk?”
She called through the door, now dropping her arm down by her side. After a long silence with no answer, she raised her hand to knock again but stopped when the door flung open, a rather irritated looking Loba standing before her.
“What?”
She spat out, sounding just as irritated as she looked.
“I, uh, wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine. Why?”
“You were off your game today- something was clearly on your mind. Was wondering if you needed to talk.”
“It’s nothing more than my usual issues with the demonio.”
"Listen, I know it's not my place, and I wasn't gonna ask, but this thing with Revenant-"
"Then don't."
Loba suddenly interrupted, glaring at the other woman with an intensity that immediately told her this was a mistake, yet she still went on.
"Momma used to say, 'Do your business or get outta the latrine'. Look, all I'm saying is, make a decision soon. Stalling isn't a good color on you."
The other woman inhaled deeply before exhaling heavily, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I said I didn't want to talk about it,"
Loba began, arms uncrossing and gaze being averted to the floor. Then, she gestured for the other to come inside, taking a few steps back and making sure she'd shut the door before continuing.
"But I'm getting what I want by giving him what he wants. Just the thought of it makes me sick."
She groaned, moving to look out the window of her room. Anita was silent, mulling over Loba's words before deciding to speak up again.
"Can I offer you some advice?"
"I suppose."
"I'd say you do it, regardless of if he's getting what he wants. Think of it this way: you kill him now, you save countless other kids from suffering like you had to; keep a lotta kids from becoming orphans, y'know? Sure, he is getting what he wants, but you're saving a lotta kids from ending up parentless."
The last bit was important, and Anita found it imperative that she got that across to Loba. The woman was clearly thinking it through, lips curling downwards into an even deeper frown than she'd previously been wearing. Light brown eyes met dark brown ones, Loba's clearly holding conflict in them, and Anita pressed a firm hand on her shoulder.
"Think about it, but think fast."
"Yeah, I will."
With a nod, the woman turned to leave, only stopping in the doorway when the other called her name.
"Anita? Thank you…"
She said, offering a small yet genuine smile. Anita nodded, closing the door behind her as she left. The Thief sighed, turning to look out her window again.
"Goddamnit…"

-----

Come the next match, which was approximately a week after her conversation with Bangalore, Loba found herself on a team with Revenant and Caustic- a trio made in hell.
"Ugh, I've already got a headache…"
She groaned to herself, leaning back against the wall of the dropship, listening as the two bickered over where to land. She didn't care, she just wanted to get on the ground, hopefully win, and get away from these two as fast as possible. Eventually, the two decided to settle on Bonsai Plaza, Loba sighing deeply because that was the last place she wanted to go. Whatever. To keep the peace, she agreed, reluctantly following Caustic as he led the jump, breaking off nearly immediately and landing on one half of the upper restaurant seating areas. She groaned when she heard Revenant taunt her over the coms.
"Recognize this place, Loba? Aww, it's a shame they got rid of the elevator."
'Don't say anything back, Loba. You're better than that.'
Choosing to ignore him, she went on with her looting, making it out of the bottom with all level 1 armor and a level 2 backpack, an Alternator, and a Triple Take. The whole time, she could hear Caustic and Revenant arguing and taking cheap shots at each other. She was honestly quite surprised they hadn't resorted to actual punches being thrown. Pinging a Trident to reluctantly get everyone grouped up, she got in the driver's seat while the other two got in their respective seats on either side. Without a word or waiting for any location suggestions, she turned the vehicle and drove it in the direction of the Estates, hopping out just at the edge and using her Jump Drive to get into a building on the second level. While Caustic and Revenant continued to bicker like an old married couple over various loot, Loba was able to set up her shop on her side of the Estates and pull an R-301 right out from underneath Revenant’s hand.
“Hey! That was mine!”
He bellowed over the coms, Loba replying with a laugh.
“You snooze, you lose, Demonio.”
She said as she then stole a pretty level three light mag from in front of Caustic as well. He groaned, watching as various stacks of light ammo began disappearing from in front of him as well, Loba laughing again over the coms as the ammo stacked up around her Black Market. Then, just for shits and giggles, she pulled all the rest of the ammo in the area to her market before closing it, not allowing her teammates the chance to grab anything from it.
"What the hell is your problem?!"
Revenant yelled, finally making his way over to her side of the buildings.
"You two don't deserve my help. Just because we're on the same team does not mean I have to work well with you."
She stated, turning away from him and dropping down the zipline behind her, deciding to move into the circle whether they were following or not, having decided to hoof it and ditch the Trident. There was a decently sized distance between her and them, and she was more than happy to keep it that way, a headache forming again once she laid eyes on the Hammond Robotics building. Using her Jump Drive to put even more distance between her and her squad, she got in the building and ran to the back of it, where all the computers were. Eyes frantically searching across them, she finally found the computer she'd used before, typing in a series of numbers and letters on the keyboard and watching as the screen lit up, the system performing some form of search before bringing an answer back to Loba.
'Good, it's still there.'
She thought to herself, quickly shutting down the unit and moving to look like she was looting as her team caught up with her.
What was still there?
The Demonio's source code, safe and sound somewhere beneath the Psamathe facility.
Loba had spent the last few months trying to find where exactly it had gone, and had finally found it on Psamathe, but now her only problem was finding a way in. This facility was locked up a lot tighter than the one on Kings Canyon. If she were to just break in like she had in the other facility, more than just Stalker units would be awoken, she feared.
"Hey!"
A gruff voice came from behind her suddenly, startling her out of her thoughts.
"What?"
She replied curtly, snapping her head to look at the man that called out to her.
"Now isn't the time to be daydreaming, Miss Andrade. There's a squad moving in on us, which you'd have known if you'd been listening."
"Can it, old man."
Loba growled, pushing past him and getting into a secure spot, listening intently to the footsteps as they approached to try and identify them. The familiar clanging of one person as they ran alerted her that Wraith was one of the three, a robotic pair of footsteps accompanying them which she knew as Pathfinder's from the way they sounded, and, well, Mirage was just being loud so she didn't need to try to identify his footsteps. They were coming in the front doors after dropping down from the Research Basin, one of Caustic's traps being set off as Mirage walked through the doors, the man chuckling as he then threw his ultimate that direction as well, the sound of Revenant's totem going up accompanying it.
"I'm home in the shadows."
The two shadowed themselves and pushed the gassed squad, Loba following behind but going with a gut instinct to not shadow. Pushing out through the gas, she found the two of them fighting Wraith and Pathfinder to the left, joining in and shooting to down them as both got sent back to the totem. She secured the two knocks, but realized that the third was missing. A decoy ran by her, nearly causing her to shoot it since it was so realistic. Turning, she was met with the end of a Peacekeeper right in her face, fully charged and shooting once to down her since she'd only just evolved her armor and hadn't recharged the extra slot.
"Damnit, that hurt!"
Loba yelled, crawling back to avoid being finished as Mirage went and started reviving Wraith.
"Enemy reviving! Right here!"
Loba again yelled, wondering why her team hadn't come out yet to get her up and take out the last member.
"A second squad is attacking, damn skinsuits!"
Oh, great, a third party. What a shocker.
So now, her team was stuck fighting the third party while she was downed and Mirage got his teammates back up, sighing as she saw them pull back to heal before rushing back in. Could she bleed out a little faster?
"Whole squad wiped."
Caustic announced over the coms, finally moving to place traps in front of the doors and revive Loba in the spot she'd moved to to hide. Once back up, she immediately started administering a Phoenix Kit.
"Watch for the first squad, Mirage got them all up and they pulled back to heal."
Loba announced, reloading her R-301 after finishing healing.
"They're fighting the only other squad."
Revenant alerted them, Loba only then realizing how long they'd been on the battlefield. Honestly, she'd expected it to drag out longer given her team.
"I'm pushing the fight."
The Simulacrum announced, rushing out the doors and taking the zipline up to the Research Basin, Caustic and Loba following quickly so he wasn't pushing by himself. After quick observation, she took note that the other team was Lifeline, Bloodhound, and Bangalore, a rather deadly combination. The squads were fighting along the walkway that led to the Energy Depot, so Loba decided to hang back and finally get some sniping in with her Triple Take. She managed to steal a down from each squad, temporarily removing Bloodhound and Wraith from the fight- though Bloodhound was revived almost as fast as they'd gone down, ducking behind a nearby box and narrowly avoiding another shot from the Thief. Caustic and Revenant pushed and eliminated Pathfinder and Mirage while Loba kept dealing trickle damage to the final squad and earning herself a level three evo shield, only stopping to reload and recharge her extra shield. Her team had also taken the moment to loot their kills quickly and recharge their shields, Caustic pulling out his ult and throwing it behind the few boxes where the others had retreated to. Bangalore popped smoke and allowed her team to pull back a little more to finish healing, Caustic and Revenant following quickly with Loba running as fast as she could to catch up. Since they were now under the cover of the Energy Depot, Bangalore's ult was rendered useless- though it didn't stop her from throwing it down along the bridge the connected them to the other half, a few stray missiles managing to land along it.
"I'm sick of chasing them like some sort of cat and mouse game!"
Loba yelled, throwing her jump drive and getting in behind them across the bridge, taking careful aim with her R-301 before emptying a full clip into Lifeline, breaking her shields and getting her down below half health. Revenant ran up, sloppily aiming at Lifeline and pulling the trigger of his Hemlock until she was downed, Bloodhound ulted and ran up on the Simulacrum with Bangalore, pumping him full of bullets and downing him.
"Damnit, I'm down!"
Thanks to two Ultimate Accelerants he'd been carrying, Caustic's ult was ready yet again, the gas cloud being thrown down on the enemy team. Choking ensued, the two trying desperately to get out of the gas, but Loba had different plans. A frag was thrown, then a thermite, both together successfully breaking their shields and evolving Loba to a level 5 evo shield. Quickly recharging the shield, she pushed alongside Caustic and unloaded a clip into Bangalore, the scientist doing the same to Bloodhound, securing them the win. The match was over, the AI voice announcing them as the Champions, and the whole team breathing a sigh of relief. Not long after, the dropship picked them up and started taking them back to base, Loba sitting and staring out the window at the view outside. After this, she was sure she'd come to a decision.
A final decision.
Her and Revenant would go to his source code that night.
Once they were back at base, she approached the Demonio, catching his attention.
"What do you want, girlie?"
"Ugh, your voice gives me a headache. I need you to meet me at the launch pads tonight. You and I are going to finish this."
She provided no further information, turning and swiftly leaving to find Bangalore. Loba found her coming out of the infirmary, patched up and ready to hit the firing range.
"Congrats on the win, Loba. You did good."
Anita praised the other, the woman laughing lightly.
"Thank you, Anita. But, we need to talk."
"Oh yeah? What about?"
"I've made my decision. I'm taking him to end it. Tonight."
"Tonight?"
"Yes, but I've got a problem. The facility will most likely be highly guarded since it's still active. I don't know how to get in there without setting off any alarms. The security in this place is like nothing I've ever faced before."
"Then we don't sneak in. We go in and kill every last skinsuit in there."
Revenant's voice startled them, both turning to look at him.
"I'm getting to my source code, no matter who I have to slaughter to get to it."
"I don't want you killing anyone else."
"Oh yeah? Then what do you expect we do? Waltz up to the door and ask them nicely to let us into their highest guarded area so we can trash it? Get real, Loba. This is going to result in a fight."
Loba groaned, turning away from him and looking to Anita for some form of help.
"There are air vents. You could get in through those. If you find the right path, you could drop out right in the room with the source code."
Anita suggested, to which Loba shook her head.
"Already looked. That room only has one entrance and is at the back of the facility. We… might need to go with the Demonio's plan. Anita, will you come with us?"
"I can't murder Hammond employees, Loba."
"That's not what I asked."
Anita fell silent, eyes searching the others face intently before sighing.
"Yeah, fine, I'll go. But I'm just following you two, nothing else."
"Agreed. Meet me at the launch pads tonight."
The three went their separate ways for the time being, each taking their time to prepare for the night ahead.