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xp_logsOn Muir, Nathan wakes up in the middle of the night, realizing that there's something wrong. He manages to rouse the others before the shooting starts, but they're at a disadvantage. Things do not go well.
Nathan opened his eyes, blinking groggily around at dim, unfamiliar shapes, before he remembered where he was. Muir Island, Moira's bedroom in the castle... and he had taken a sleeping pill before lying down, so he had no idea whatsoever what he was doing awake. He felt... unsettled, vaguely panicky, yet his mind was still sluggish, unable to quite shake the drug's influence.
Moira was sleeping soundly beside him, curled up under the thick comforter. Nathan sat up slowly, sliding out of bed, and went to the door. It was open a crack, and he stopped there, listening with his ears and his mind alike. That panicky feeling only intensified, and he gritted his teeth, pushing his mind outwards a little, trying to scan at least their immediate vicinity.
It worked, somewhat. He brushed against four familiar, sleeping minds, flinching a little at the images he sensed from Rory and Dom, but there was something else there, too. Little flickers, echoes almost...
Nathan's eyes widened and he whirled, crossing the space between the door and the bed in three quick steps. He bent over Moira, shaking her lightly. #Wake up,# he murmured down the link to her. Her eyes snapped open and she turned over onto her back, blinking at him confusedly, but he shook his head as she started to open her mouth. #Don't make a sound. Get up and get dressed, quickly.# Not waiting to see whether or not she obeyed, he turned and headed over to the bag Domino had shoved at him when they had finally landed the helicopter on the island. It contained a good selection of his gear, and he heard Moira's sharp, indrawn breath as he pulled out two Glocks, loading them rapidly.
When Moira saw the guns, she knew this, whatever it was, was serious. Quickly, she threw back the covers and reached for the discarded jeans near the bed. Moving as quickly and as quietly in the dark as she could, she was soon dressed, remembering at the last second to even slip her sneakers on. She glanced over at him and watched as he double checked his weapons.
#Nathan, wha's goin' on?# Moira sent, not bothering to keep the fear out of her mental voice. She was slowly pulling herself together but, still shaking sleep from her eyes, she didn't quite have it all together.
#There's someone else here,# he sent back, and found his shoes quickly, even as he was reaching out to the others. #Intruders, folks!# he sent sharply. #Here in the castle. Don't know how many.#
Nate? Dom's response was immediate, far faster than Theo and G.W.'s more sluggish replies. She never slept very deeply. I'll rouse Rory. Where to?
#Sun room,# he sent back, flashing all three of them the image of the room, just to make sure. #Most defensible place.# And it was close; he could get Moira there fast.
Where are they? G.W. asked.
#Not sure. They're shielded somehow.# That was what he had felt earlier, Nathan realized, his heart sinking in his chest. People still here, but shielded - by another telepath? He should never have written off the uneasiness as due to jet lag and his already unsettled state of mind. The Askani were murmuring at the back of his head cautiously, but he ignored them, turning to Moira.
#We're going to the sun room,# he sent. #Whatever you do, stay behind me unless I say run.# He held one of the guns out to her.
There was no hesitation as she took the offered gun. The weight was a far cry from the comforting weight of a hunting rifle but Moira shrugged that off. Nathan had taught her how to adapt to a handgun, so adapt she would. She looked up at him and nodded, a familar mask falling into place. What her uncle liked to call the Doctor's Mask, it was what she hid behind when there was a hard hurdle ahead. Later, she would curl up in a corner somewhere and panic. There was something to accomplish now.
#Dinnae 'ave ta tell me twice. Jus'--be careful, please.#
Nathan nodded sharply at her, then led the way out of the room. He was keeping tabs on the other four even as he led Moira in the direction of the sun room, monitoring their progress. Amazing how much imminent danger sharpened the mind. If only he could get a read on precisely how many intruders they were dealing with... Nathan held out a hand, backing Moira up against the wall, shielding her with his body. The circumstances warranted the risk, he told himself, and gathering his strength, did a real scan, visualizing the layout of the castle as he did.
There. The telepath stood out, and there were five - no, six others, and... Nathan whirled, firing down the hall in time to startle the dark shape coming around the corner back to cover. "Go!" he barked at Moira, flinging up a TK shield between them and the intruder.
Moira bolted, heading towards the hopefully safe haven of the sun room, moving mainly by memory and touch in the dark. The shots being fired behind her echoed loudly and she winced, ducking despite knowing Nathan was shielding them. The gun felt heavy in her hand but she refrained from using it and stayed hunkered down. Reaching the door of the sun room, she flung it open, darting inside.
The intruder was running at him, firing steadily, and Nathan gritted his teeth, switching from defense to offense, a shield to a sledgehammer. He sent the intruder tumbling head over heels back down the hall, limp as a rag doll, and sensed his thoughts wink out. The backlash staggered him for a moment, but Nathan made himself turn and head in the direction Moira had gone, his heart pounding as he tried to locate the other intruders again. That damned sleeping pill, he couldn't focus...
Shots, from elsewhere in the castle, and he heard a torrent of pained, angry thoughts from G.W. #Grizz!# he projected loudly. #Help Bridge!#
On it! he heard Theo think back to him.
#Dom?#
On our way upstairs, she sent back crisply. Two hostiles down.
Nathan rounded the corner, running for the sun room door. He didn't see Moira, but he could sense her inside, safe but scared, and... Gunfire, from the far end of the hall, and Nathan flung up a shield just in time. #Moira, stay there!# he shouted, flinging himself back around the corner, then firing back. Damn it, he couldn't pin this one down telepathically - was it the telepath? - and he couldn't use his telekinesis indiscriminately. Not without risking structural damage to the castle, which he wasn't about to do, not with Moira right here...
Not one. Two. One was firing, and another darted from cover, far enough up the hall that he was almost at the sun room door, close enough to throw something through...
#MOIRA! STAY STILL!# Nathan shouted down the link, focusing on her, nothing but her, putting everything he had into wrapping her in a TK bubble.
Moira froze as something came tumbling in through the door way and spun on the floor. She heard Nathan screaming at her through the link, to not move. She knew what that was and instinct screamed at her to run. But the trust she had for Nathan forced her to stay still as she stared at the grenade in horror. She felt him on the link, felt him struggling to protect her. Dropping the gun, Moira brought her hands up to her face, to shield her eyes. Her body tensed, not sure what to expect.
It was not what she expected and maybe that was due to the shielding around her. There was a dull roaring noise, a brilliant flash of light. Moira cried out as the force of the blast threw her backwards. It was too quick, she was too disoriented, for her to try and roll.
And with a sickening crunch, Moira was slammed bodily into the stone wall behind her, not a sound coming out of her as she crumpled to the ground, darkness flooding over her as her head dropped forward.
The impact on his shield was bad enough, but the shock that rolled up the link as she was knocked unconscious was like a physical blow, and Nathan hit the floor, nearly blacking out. No, he thought disjointedly as the darkness reached up, trying to claim him. No, need to... The Askani were shouting at the back of his mind, at him, unmistakably at him, and he realized dimly that the link was still there, that Moira's thoughts were there, only at an unconscious level but still there...
And he was exposed, out in the open. Sheer willpower let him push himself up off the floor, and his telekinesis lashed out almost of its own accord, smashing into the closest of the intruders with killing force. But the other was raising his gun, and Nathan was a beat behind, an instant too slow. Even as he pulled the trigger, he felt two fiery impacts, one to his upper leg, the other to his shoulder. His shot was dead-on, taking the other man in the forehead, but the intruder got off another shot, maybe just a last twitch of his finger, and Nathan felt something sear along the side of his head, something that half-spun him around. The last thing he felt was the agony as he fell on his wounded shoulder. Then his head hit the floor, and he felt nothing.
***
"--hear me? Moira, look at me." Someone was leaning over her, quick hands moving over her body, checking for injuries. "Come on, Moira, snap out of it! We need you!"
Groaning, Moira jerked away from the hands and cried out as her head threatened to split open at the seams. "Wha' th'...fuck..." she managed, trying to open her eyes. They weren't cooperating, not yet.
"Come on, don't be concussed or anything," Domino said sharply. "Rory needs help. Nate..."
Nathan. Suddenly panicked, Moira reached out for the link. "Wha' 'appened?!" she asked, forcing her eyes open. The world swam before her and she bit back a curse. "'e's alive but...'urt...wha'...th' grenade..."
Domino cursed under her breath. Grenade - that explained the room. Also suggested that the intruders, whoever they had been, had been after Moira in particular, if they had flung it in here after her while Nate had been out in the hall. "Our 'guests' are dead," she said, the words clipped as she gave the stunned Scotswoman a status report. "You seem to be mostly okay, although I'm not going to vouch for the fact that there's no internal damage until Rory checks you over. He's fine. Theo's got a flesh wound, G.W. took one in the arm. Nate's... in bad shape, Moira."
Moira stared at Dom and reached for the link again. Nathan was there, barely. "Tell Rory ta get 'im down ta th' Triage area, now." Her words, still slightly slurred, were suddenly in control. "Rory can start preparin' ta do wha'...we need ta do while I get downstairs meself. I'm--need 'elp gettin' there, I'll be all right once I start movin'. I can be concussed later. Tell me wha' ye know 'bout 'is injuries."
Domino nodded. It was rather obvious that although Rory Campbell was the medical doctor, Moira clearly called most of the shots around here. "Theo!" she called back over her shoulder in the direction of the ruined door. "Tell Rory Moira says to get Nate to the triage area. You do the carrying!" She turned her attention back to Moira, helping the other woman up carefully. "Lean on me," she said curtly. "Looked like Nate was hit three times. Graze to the head, one through the shoulder, one to the upper leg. Third one had to have nicked the artery." That sort of bleeding was unmistakable, but Rory had gotten a tourniquet on so fast that Domino had half-suspected him of developing a speed-related mutation since the last time she had seen him.
Out in the blood-splattered hall, G.W. was on his feet, pale and sweating, a makeshift bandage around his arm. "Got one good arm," he said, moving to Moira's other side. "Lean on me, doc."
As she leaned on the two for support, Moira shoved her mind into thinking. It hurt to think, to move, to breathe, but it would hurt a lot more if she stopped and rested. With a nicked artery in the leg, Nathan *was* in bad shape. "If 'e's lost a lot of blood, we need ta get more in 'im," she murmured, eyes on her feet and not on the blood as they walked. The fear was there but being buried by professionalism. "I know 'is blood type, we've got a stock. Keep an eye on th' virus levels, as well."
Domino couldn't bring herself to respond. She was almost unbelievably angry, had been since she'd buried a knife in the throat of the man who had tried to jump her and Rory on the way out of his bedroom. She and Nate and G.W. and Theo were supposed to be part of one of the best mercenary groups around, and here they had gotten sandbagged by a dime-a-dozen special ops team. Stupid, they had been so stupid and trusting, and of W.H.O., of all the damned things - what had they been thinking?
"He'll be okay, Moira," G.W. was saying. "He's made it through worse than this."
But he was trying not to look at the blood either, Domino noticed. And arterial spray left a fairly distinctive pattern... Moira stumbled a little, and Domino held her up. "You can collapse later, MacTaggart," she said harshly. "Stay with me."
"'ere until th' end," Moira grated, straightening slowly. "After tha', nay guarantees."
Nathan opened his eyes, blinking groggily around at dim, unfamiliar shapes, before he remembered where he was. Muir Island, Moira's bedroom in the castle... and he had taken a sleeping pill before lying down, so he had no idea whatsoever what he was doing awake. He felt... unsettled, vaguely panicky, yet his mind was still sluggish, unable to quite shake the drug's influence.
Moira was sleeping soundly beside him, curled up under the thick comforter. Nathan sat up slowly, sliding out of bed, and went to the door. It was open a crack, and he stopped there, listening with his ears and his mind alike. That panicky feeling only intensified, and he gritted his teeth, pushing his mind outwards a little, trying to scan at least their immediate vicinity.
It worked, somewhat. He brushed against four familiar, sleeping minds, flinching a little at the images he sensed from Rory and Dom, but there was something else there, too. Little flickers, echoes almost...
Nathan's eyes widened and he whirled, crossing the space between the door and the bed in three quick steps. He bent over Moira, shaking her lightly. #Wake up,# he murmured down the link to her. Her eyes snapped open and she turned over onto her back, blinking at him confusedly, but he shook his head as she started to open her mouth. #Don't make a sound. Get up and get dressed, quickly.# Not waiting to see whether or not she obeyed, he turned and headed over to the bag Domino had shoved at him when they had finally landed the helicopter on the island. It contained a good selection of his gear, and he heard Moira's sharp, indrawn breath as he pulled out two Glocks, loading them rapidly.
When Moira saw the guns, she knew this, whatever it was, was serious. Quickly, she threw back the covers and reached for the discarded jeans near the bed. Moving as quickly and as quietly in the dark as she could, she was soon dressed, remembering at the last second to even slip her sneakers on. She glanced over at him and watched as he double checked his weapons.
#Nathan, wha's goin' on?# Moira sent, not bothering to keep the fear out of her mental voice. She was slowly pulling herself together but, still shaking sleep from her eyes, she didn't quite have it all together.
#There's someone else here,# he sent back, and found his shoes quickly, even as he was reaching out to the others. #Intruders, folks!# he sent sharply. #Here in the castle. Don't know how many.#
Nate? Dom's response was immediate, far faster than Theo and G.W.'s more sluggish replies. She never slept very deeply. I'll rouse Rory. Where to?
#Sun room,# he sent back, flashing all three of them the image of the room, just to make sure. #Most defensible place.# And it was close; he could get Moira there fast.
Where are they? G.W. asked.
#Not sure. They're shielded somehow.# That was what he had felt earlier, Nathan realized, his heart sinking in his chest. People still here, but shielded - by another telepath? He should never have written off the uneasiness as due to jet lag and his already unsettled state of mind. The Askani were murmuring at the back of his head cautiously, but he ignored them, turning to Moira.
#We're going to the sun room,# he sent. #Whatever you do, stay behind me unless I say run.# He held one of the guns out to her.
There was no hesitation as she took the offered gun. The weight was a far cry from the comforting weight of a hunting rifle but Moira shrugged that off. Nathan had taught her how to adapt to a handgun, so adapt she would. She looked up at him and nodded, a familar mask falling into place. What her uncle liked to call the Doctor's Mask, it was what she hid behind when there was a hard hurdle ahead. Later, she would curl up in a corner somewhere and panic. There was something to accomplish now.
#Dinnae 'ave ta tell me twice. Jus'--be careful, please.#
Nathan nodded sharply at her, then led the way out of the room. He was keeping tabs on the other four even as he led Moira in the direction of the sun room, monitoring their progress. Amazing how much imminent danger sharpened the mind. If only he could get a read on precisely how many intruders they were dealing with... Nathan held out a hand, backing Moira up against the wall, shielding her with his body. The circumstances warranted the risk, he told himself, and gathering his strength, did a real scan, visualizing the layout of the castle as he did.
There. The telepath stood out, and there were five - no, six others, and... Nathan whirled, firing down the hall in time to startle the dark shape coming around the corner back to cover. "Go!" he barked at Moira, flinging up a TK shield between them and the intruder.
Moira bolted, heading towards the hopefully safe haven of the sun room, moving mainly by memory and touch in the dark. The shots being fired behind her echoed loudly and she winced, ducking despite knowing Nathan was shielding them. The gun felt heavy in her hand but she refrained from using it and stayed hunkered down. Reaching the door of the sun room, she flung it open, darting inside.
The intruder was running at him, firing steadily, and Nathan gritted his teeth, switching from defense to offense, a shield to a sledgehammer. He sent the intruder tumbling head over heels back down the hall, limp as a rag doll, and sensed his thoughts wink out. The backlash staggered him for a moment, but Nathan made himself turn and head in the direction Moira had gone, his heart pounding as he tried to locate the other intruders again. That damned sleeping pill, he couldn't focus...
Shots, from elsewhere in the castle, and he heard a torrent of pained, angry thoughts from G.W. #Grizz!# he projected loudly. #Help Bridge!#
On it! he heard Theo think back to him.
#Dom?#
On our way upstairs, she sent back crisply. Two hostiles down.
Nathan rounded the corner, running for the sun room door. He didn't see Moira, but he could sense her inside, safe but scared, and... Gunfire, from the far end of the hall, and Nathan flung up a shield just in time. #Moira, stay there!# he shouted, flinging himself back around the corner, then firing back. Damn it, he couldn't pin this one down telepathically - was it the telepath? - and he couldn't use his telekinesis indiscriminately. Not without risking structural damage to the castle, which he wasn't about to do, not with Moira right here...
Not one. Two. One was firing, and another darted from cover, far enough up the hall that he was almost at the sun room door, close enough to throw something through...
#MOIRA! STAY STILL!# Nathan shouted down the link, focusing on her, nothing but her, putting everything he had into wrapping her in a TK bubble.
Moira froze as something came tumbling in through the door way and spun on the floor. She heard Nathan screaming at her through the link, to not move. She knew what that was and instinct screamed at her to run. But the trust she had for Nathan forced her to stay still as she stared at the grenade in horror. She felt him on the link, felt him struggling to protect her. Dropping the gun, Moira brought her hands up to her face, to shield her eyes. Her body tensed, not sure what to expect.
It was not what she expected and maybe that was due to the shielding around her. There was a dull roaring noise, a brilliant flash of light. Moira cried out as the force of the blast threw her backwards. It was too quick, she was too disoriented, for her to try and roll.
And with a sickening crunch, Moira was slammed bodily into the stone wall behind her, not a sound coming out of her as she crumpled to the ground, darkness flooding over her as her head dropped forward.
The impact on his shield was bad enough, but the shock that rolled up the link as she was knocked unconscious was like a physical blow, and Nathan hit the floor, nearly blacking out. No, he thought disjointedly as the darkness reached up, trying to claim him. No, need to... The Askani were shouting at the back of his mind, at him, unmistakably at him, and he realized dimly that the link was still there, that Moira's thoughts were there, only at an unconscious level but still there...
And he was exposed, out in the open. Sheer willpower let him push himself up off the floor, and his telekinesis lashed out almost of its own accord, smashing into the closest of the intruders with killing force. But the other was raising his gun, and Nathan was a beat behind, an instant too slow. Even as he pulled the trigger, he felt two fiery impacts, one to his upper leg, the other to his shoulder. His shot was dead-on, taking the other man in the forehead, but the intruder got off another shot, maybe just a last twitch of his finger, and Nathan felt something sear along the side of his head, something that half-spun him around. The last thing he felt was the agony as he fell on his wounded shoulder. Then his head hit the floor, and he felt nothing.
***
"--hear me? Moira, look at me." Someone was leaning over her, quick hands moving over her body, checking for injuries. "Come on, Moira, snap out of it! We need you!"
Groaning, Moira jerked away from the hands and cried out as her head threatened to split open at the seams. "Wha' th'...fuck..." she managed, trying to open her eyes. They weren't cooperating, not yet.
"Come on, don't be concussed or anything," Domino said sharply. "Rory needs help. Nate..."
Nathan. Suddenly panicked, Moira reached out for the link. "Wha' 'appened?!" she asked, forcing her eyes open. The world swam before her and she bit back a curse. "'e's alive but...'urt...wha'...th' grenade..."
Domino cursed under her breath. Grenade - that explained the room. Also suggested that the intruders, whoever they had been, had been after Moira in particular, if they had flung it in here after her while Nate had been out in the hall. "Our 'guests' are dead," she said, the words clipped as she gave the stunned Scotswoman a status report. "You seem to be mostly okay, although I'm not going to vouch for the fact that there's no internal damage until Rory checks you over. He's fine. Theo's got a flesh wound, G.W. took one in the arm. Nate's... in bad shape, Moira."
Moira stared at Dom and reached for the link again. Nathan was there, barely. "Tell Rory ta get 'im down ta th' Triage area, now." Her words, still slightly slurred, were suddenly in control. "Rory can start preparin' ta do wha'...we need ta do while I get downstairs meself. I'm--need 'elp gettin' there, I'll be all right once I start movin'. I can be concussed later. Tell me wha' ye know 'bout 'is injuries."
Domino nodded. It was rather obvious that although Rory Campbell was the medical doctor, Moira clearly called most of the shots around here. "Theo!" she called back over her shoulder in the direction of the ruined door. "Tell Rory Moira says to get Nate to the triage area. You do the carrying!" She turned her attention back to Moira, helping the other woman up carefully. "Lean on me," she said curtly. "Looked like Nate was hit three times. Graze to the head, one through the shoulder, one to the upper leg. Third one had to have nicked the artery." That sort of bleeding was unmistakable, but Rory had gotten a tourniquet on so fast that Domino had half-suspected him of developing a speed-related mutation since the last time she had seen him.
Out in the blood-splattered hall, G.W. was on his feet, pale and sweating, a makeshift bandage around his arm. "Got one good arm," he said, moving to Moira's other side. "Lean on me, doc."
As she leaned on the two for support, Moira shoved her mind into thinking. It hurt to think, to move, to breathe, but it would hurt a lot more if she stopped and rested. With a nicked artery in the leg, Nathan *was* in bad shape. "If 'e's lost a lot of blood, we need ta get more in 'im," she murmured, eyes on her feet and not on the blood as they walked. The fear was there but being buried by professionalism. "I know 'is blood type, we've got a stock. Keep an eye on th' virus levels, as well."
Domino couldn't bring herself to respond. She was almost unbelievably angry, had been since she'd buried a knife in the throat of the man who had tried to jump her and Rory on the way out of his bedroom. She and Nate and G.W. and Theo were supposed to be part of one of the best mercenary groups around, and here they had gotten sandbagged by a dime-a-dozen special ops team. Stupid, they had been so stupid and trusting, and of W.H.O., of all the damned things - what had they been thinking?
"He'll be okay, Moira," G.W. was saying. "He's made it through worse than this."
But he was trying not to look at the blood either, Domino noticed. And arterial spray left a fairly distinctive pattern... Moira stumbled a little, and Domino held her up. "You can collapse later, MacTaggart," she said harshly. "Stay with me."
"'ere until th' end," Moira grated, straightening slowly. "After tha', nay guarantees."
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