Simply Survive

Summer followed after him, wondering just how she was going to explain what was on her mind...or rather on her arm without freaking him out. She was infected...she knew that, but...she wasn't growing into an undead. She knew that, too. It was just a matter of making that known before she had a gun pulled on her...though, he had promised not to shoot her right off. Guess that counted for something.

The female frowned at her own thoughts as they drew closer to Targas' room and she entered after him, taking a moment to hesitate, to scan the hall and rethink her decision. In the end, though, Summer stepped into the room and she kept her hands to herself, almost afraid of touching something she shouldn't.

"I...yeah, I'm not sure how to put this...umm.... You know I am...virus-altered, right?" She really didn't wait for a response. Nearly everyone here knew that now and Summer was only trying to ease into the conversation.

"Well, sometimes, and it's happened before, if an undead scratches me or their teeth graze me, blood contact in small amounts... my abilities grow stronger or I develop new ones, but I don't...die or go crazy. I'm used to it, doesn't bother me, but this time..."

She took a heavy breath and just decided to do it, rolling up her sleeve to show the red spirals traveling up her arm, disappearing under her clothes, all originating from one innocent-looking scratch. "Well...THIS has never happened before and hell if I know what it IS. That's why I'm worried."
 
Targas looked at her arm, eyes taking in what was shown and the look of worry on his face disappeared. In fact, he almost looked entranced...

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"Whatever she is about to show me cant be tha--." That was all his brain was able to register as his eyes hit the tendrils making their way up her arm. His mind blanked and all he saw were those symbols from the vial floating around the room and dancing across her body, her arm pulsing in the red energy and the symbols swirling their way towards it. Something in the back of his mind told him that the vial could help. How it could help was beyond him but if it could help her, then it was worth a shot.

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He stared blankly for a few moments before looking like he snapped out of it, shaking his head and sighing under his breath.

"I have something to show you. Something in my mind tells me that it will help you."

He reaches over to his footlocker and pulls out a sock bundle, unraveling it and pulling out the small, black vial. As soon as he pulled it out, the symbols on the vial swirled faster and faster, slowly coming off the vial itself. They made a concentric circle around the two humans and one distinctive symbol flew between them. Unconsciously, Targas held the vial between the two, under the floating symbol. A red light began to pulse from the symbol and when the pulse hit the two persons, it flashed. The symbol vanished and a tether of a sort was left linking the two together, glowing the same red energy. A small globule of matter floated up from the vial itself and merged with the tether and began to arc into both people. As soon as the material made contact with the two, the other red symbols swarmed in on the center of the ring and into the tether, coursing an unknown energy into the two people which proceeded to make them black out.

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While unconscious, they both had the same 'dream.'

They saw the Milky Way galaxy before them, the arms spanning the entire field of view. They looked around and saw each other, both perplexed and worry showing visibly on their faces. They began to fly towards the galaxy and impossible speeds, flying past stars and planets and nebulae. After a few minutes of traversing the galaxy, they found themselves floating above a planet. They knew that this was where the virus originated, where the death of the Earth came from. The planet before them rotated slowly and looked barren. No visible cities from the space-side view, no distinguishing landmasses or bodies of water...it was all empty. A few moments later, a small shape flew off the planet just as the planet began to glow red and orange. The crust of the planet splitting open and pouring the core out of its place until the planet fractured and exploded.

The explosion was impressive; rocks and metals flying past and through the two who were watching the destruction of a planet and the remnants of a species fleeing their homeworld. That's what this was, their home.

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The two then awoke.
 
At first Summer had been worried by his silence and she'd been ready to yank her sleeve down and leave, threatening him to silence if she had to, but then Targas had spoken and she'd felt the most bizarre desire to trust him. So she'd waited, silent as he brought out what he wanted to show her. When he did, the male wasn't the only one entranced as the symbols flew off the vial. She knew those...why did she-

The thought wasn't even able to finish as the next events happened and the next thing Summer knew, she was watching a dead planet explode, the escape of a species that was causing the destruction of their own world. She was floating in space, unafraid of such a thing, as if fear didn't exist in this limbo place.

And then the world was going black.

The woman woke with her head pounding, mouth dry, her heart thudding like a drumbeat in her chest, rushing blood to her ears. She laid where she'd fallen, almost afraid of trying to get up and trembled uncontrollably,. Why was she shaking? Why was she so cold? No, not...not her arm. Her arm was hot. Why was- Summer's eyes landed on said limb and she stared, unsure if what she was seeing was a hallucination or real.

The symbols...they swirled over her skin and it was like they were a living pulse, heat radiating from them, felt all the way up to her shoulder and down to her palm. That was where the heat centered so strongly and Summer lifted her hand from the floor, looking at the strange, prominent red symbol there, etched into her skin. What in the world...? Was she still dreaming? The woman looked up, around then until her eyes landed on Targas, feeling almost relieved that she wasn't alone.
 
Targas awoke from the strange dream and looked to Summer, more concerned about her than himself. He staggered as he got up and promptly fell, instead deciding to crawl over to her to see if she was alright. As he moved, he felt his chest burn and every part of his body ached as if he had been working out for several hours straight. He reached out an arm to touch her and noticed there were red symbols all over his body, slowly fading into his skin. He disregarded what was going on with his body again, checking to see what had happened to Summer, to see if anything was wrong with her.

He had the strangest urge to hug her, and he did. He took her in his arms and felt her heartbeat and then his fell into sync with it. Feeling one's heart immediately change pace to match someone else's was not all that pleasant but he felt a bond form then fade away. He felt hot all over his body, as if he had been caught in the fiery blast of the planet he had watched died and she had felt very cold. He wished he could make her warmer, and well, he did. He felt the heat radiate off of him and into her.

"Are you ok?" He whispered into her ear, still holding her in his arms.
 
Summer wasn't sure what to do when his arms wrapped around her and for a moment she stayed frozen. It didn't last long as she felt her heart jump, felt the cold chill race along her skin as the symbols on her skin sank back into her body and she distinctly felt the pull, the sharp, but not painful, tug that occurred when Targas' heartrate shuttered and jumped to match her own. Her ears picked up on that clearly and her body....well, it reacted without true prompt from her mind as her arms wrapped around the male, clinging to him as her body warmed almost instantly.

He'd offered the hug, the support, concern, comfort, whatever this was and she was accepting it. And she didn't feel like that was wrong....like she should be wary or cautious or reserved. This...this felt right.

She swallowed hard at his question, breathing hitching slightly and her arms tightening before she answered. "I...don't know." That was the absolute truth of the matter. She had NO idea what had happened, why it had happened or what was going to happen. All she knew was that she ached like she'd been thrown around by a Behemoth and while she was no longer cold, she was still trembling and something felt different.

So very, very different.

Summer pulled back slowly at that thought and her eyes met Targas' steel ones. She didn't think, didn't even understand why she reached up then and her palm came to rest on his bearded skin. "Are YOU okay?"
 
"I...I dont know." His voice matched hers in truthfullness, looking into her eyes.

He hadnt known what had happened other than the vision but he felt something else inside of him, and inside of her to a degree, almost as if he had a supernaturally strong empathetic connection to her. He tentatively raised a hand and ran it through her hair and rested it on her cheek; it felt so natural to do it.

A sudden surge of urgency came over him and he looked behind him to where the vial had fallen, or at least he thought it did. The vial was there, but clear and had nothing inside or on it. He put it back into his locker and closed it up, returning his gaze to the woman in front of him and took her hands in his and gave her a smile, albeit a somewhat confused one.
 
Summer had leaned into his touch like a cat, eyelids flickering somewhere between open and closed, feeling something like contentment curl through her before the urgency hit her, only a split moment after Targas....or was it that it was his emotion she'd picked up on? The question and the lack of definitive answer made the woman falter and she watched as he put the empty, clear vial away. She could only guess as to why it was now as it was and she found her eyes flickering to her arm, to her palm. Her skin was now clear, but...it was as if she KNEW the symbols weren't gone.

The male's hands slid into her own then and pale blue eyes looked up into his gray. His smile elicited one in her, too, almost instantly, but her own was far more uncertain, questioning and Summer decided that the best way to go about this....was to simply start talking.

"You...you saw that? The symbols and the red glow, the planet exploding....and our heart beats, they match now. Why do they match? Why do I....why do I not want you out of my sight? Why am I okay with this?"

She looked down at their hands, still together and Summer couldn't bring herself to pull away. She didn't WANT to, but she didn't UNDERSTAND why she didn't want to. Why she felt happy with his touch, why there was this new and powerful craving for it.

"I feel...safe." she whispered, hardly daring to believe the words and yet knowing them true. But there were more truths, too. "And scared....and different..."
 
"I feel it too...I dont know what to make of it..." His voice trails off as he continues to look into her eyes and smiles again, taking her into his arms again in a tight hug.

"Something about this feels very...natural...And this bond that I can feel between us? Not that its an issue but I--" His voice was stuttering like a nervous teenager trying to ask a girl out.

He just sat there, holding her in his arms and running a hand through her hair.
 
She went back into his arms willingly, feeling steadier there, like it was where she belonged and Summer knew that logically she shouldn't be okay with this. She didn't know him. She knew nothing about him, not his past or his family, not his goals, likes or dislikes. She didn't know his friends, what he could do, what he dreamed of, his hopes, fears. She knew none of it and he knew nothing about her in the same exact way. They'd been friendly, spoken of generalized things, and yet...she trusted him enough to show him her arm when she would have told anyone else to piss off.

The woman wasn't sure why she'd done that either. And she most certainly did not understand why she now stayed curled in his arms, eyes closed as his fingers carded through her auburn hair and she breathed in his scent like it was the most soothing thing in the world.

"This is strange. You do realize that, right? It...it feels right to me, too, but...if you think about it, it's just odd, Targas." she whispered up to him, finally opening her pale blue eyes to glance up into his gray. She needed to know she wasn't alone with these swirling, confusing thoughts. Surely he could recognize that in a normal circumstance, what they were doing, how they felt....it was crazy strange.

People didn't just start...needing each other after a week and certainly not to this degree. Right? And what had happened with the vial...they should be more concerned about that. Summer KNEW that....but she couldn't bring herself to feel any true alarm about....and that was worrying....logically, anyway.
 
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He looked down into her eyes and nodded to her.

"I know, it is very strange indeed. I think it that vial had something to do with it, at least for me, though I dont know how..." His voice trails off as his expression blanks.

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"...though I dont know how..."

His mind cleared of everything, only showing the vial flowing in front of him. He reached out to it with his mind and the empty glass shattered. Around him, he heard and saw heartbeats. He saw his heart connected to the woman in his arms and he was confused and his mind was showing itself images from the alien homeworld: creatures all using these vials to connect their hearts to each other, to symbolize (to him) eternal 'love' and bound mates. He was still confused as to why he even did it in the first place and his brain showed him more images: a strong male carrying the vial, mind already imprinted with the desire to find another, a strong female walking past, the male deciding she was suitable and marking her, and finally there was the ritual being performed.

He tried asking himself about the bond and only getting that it feels where the other his and their health.

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He snapped out of his mental trip and shook his head, rubbing his temples and sighing under his breath.

"Well, I guess I do know now. Those vials were used as some sort of ritual, one that binds the two hearts of those in it to one another. A strong male is the one who carries the vial and he seeks out a strong female. The male has his mind imprinted already to do whatever he can to get the female to trust in his strength and when she does, the ritual is performed. That is why it feels so strange. We were compelled, well mostly me, to do this but a good part of me is content with the outcome in that situation. As for what else the vial did, I do not yet know."

He looked into her eyes and gave a faint smile, trying to reassure her that everything will be ok.
 
Summer didn't know where his mind had gone, but she could sense that Targas wasn't 'with' her anymore and she watched him with some worry, her fingers absently tracing patterns on his arm as she waited for him to show some sign that he was 'back' again. Somehow she knew not to interrupt whatever was going on and when the male finally snapped out of his trance, she let out a sigh of relief that was drowned out by his own sigh and the woman listened carefully to what he said, the explanation he gave.

She stilled and took a deep breath, working on slowing her buzzing thoughts to better think clearly. What he said made sense. Sure, it was strange, but it made sense and in this jumbled mess, that was all that mattered. The vial had linked her to him...a strong male. Summer studied Targas then, taking in his brown hair and strong jaw, the pock-marks on his skin, evidence that he'd survived many a trial and pain...and survived. He was hard like the steel of his eyes, unyielding, brave and yet...that same wall that could keep anything out was now wrapped around her, keeping her in, keeping everything else away and Summer, in that moment, thought she understood what the vial's - or was it the alien's? - definition of strong meant.

And she had trusted that strength, had respected it, even admired it even from the beginning. Hell, he was the only one on the team that had caught her attention even in the attack. Was that the vial's doing or something else? Did it matter anymore?

Summer met the male's eyes again, having looked away while she thought and seeing his faint smile, she returned it instinctively and her fingers brushed in random tracing against his arm again, her own reassurance back to him that she believed him. Even if this was THE oddest thing that had EVER happened to her.

"So...we are...mates now? Wh-what does that mean? I understand that...we were compelled to do it, but...are going to be compelled to do anything we don't want to now?"

Summer sighed, reaching up to cradle her head, feeling the headache there. "Sorry, I know you don't have the answers and...I'm not...against this, I just... Look, logically I don't KNOW you and maybe my instincts like you and that was enough to make this 'ritual' work, but....that doesn't change the fact that you're a stranger to me. I know I can trust you and I know that....I WAS fond of you, even before this. I just don't...want anything to happen that...we don't truly choose ourselves."
 
"Nothing will happen that we dont want but I do suppose that makes us 'mates' in their definition. I still feel that we have control over what we do and I think that we should take some time to get to know each other a bit more."

He nodded to himself as if agreeing with what he was saying.

"We should also take some time to find out what else this 'ritual' did to us."

He stood up, helping her up and took her into a standing hug and kissed her on the forehead. He looked her over to make sure that nothing was too offputting for other people that saw her and noticed that the wound on her arm had disappeared, leaving only a faint scar, but he could 'see' the pulsing energy inside of her.
 
Summer nodded back to him, amendable to that solution and she stood with the male's help, not really needing it, but not minding it either. It was strange, this acceptance of another person, of touch and help and care, and the auburn-haired female closed her eyes when his lips connected with her skin, letting out a sigh before he pulled back and Targas then proceeded to scan her. Summer raised a brow at that, and a smile both amused but also a bit mischievous danced across her face.

"Checking over your new product?"

She chuckled then and took a step back, out of his reach. "Sorry, no refunds or exchanges." Her words contained a teasing lilt, but Summer took that moment to look over Targas as well, able to see the same energy, feel it almost and it made her wonder just HOW potent this connection was. Sometimes she perceived she could almost feel when he felt, emotionally. Did he feel the same? Was there are physical connection here, as well? She liked his touch and he obviously felt the need to have contact with her, but...if one of them was hurt or in danger...would the know, feel that, too?

He was right. They needed to figure this out.

Her eyes met his own once more, determined now. "We're going on another mission. Out in the field is probably the best way to test this."
 
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"well, you are on my team. I made sure of that already. It served, at first, to see how far you have progressed but now it will let me know that you are safe."

His face returned to the steel exterior he has but his eyes betray everything only to Summer.

"We are to go investigate a rumor about there being a weapons cache in an abandoned subway. There will no doubt be heavy infestation so we are to use silenced weapons unless we wish to be mauled to death, though I do not know what will happen to us now."
 
"Sounds like fun."

She could feel herself slipping back behind her shields again, presenting only a wall to everyone around her....only that didn't include Targas anymore and while that fact would take some getting used to, she wasn't overly bothered by it. Perhaps if they had to have this bond, it was a good thing that it seemed to bring out their baser natures of wanting companionship and played on their trust for each other. It would have been extremely awkward - well, more than it already was - if they were to have this bond but be freaked out by it.

Summer looked toward the door, a frown coming to her face, worry and something more, something haunted flickering across her face before she looked back at the male. "I don't think we should...make any of this public knowledge until we understand it better."

She didn't actually think he'd say anything, but it was better to be sure.
 
Targas ran a gentle hand through her hair and rested it on her cheek, giving her a reassuring smile.

"I hadnt planned on it, so dont you worry yourself anymore than you need to."

He pulled her into a hug again before letting her go on with her day.

"We leave at oh-six hundred, so be prepared. Also, Kilborn will be joining us as a temp replacement and to check on your progress. If anything happens, Ill make sure to defend you and take as much heat as I can. Seniority has its benefits."
 
Summer found herself reduced to a warm, content, smiling mess when he touched her once more and she felt her face heat for probably the first time since she was a young teenager. Clearing her throat, she tucked her hair behind her ear and looked down, nodding once he let her go. At his words, though, she groaned under her breath. 6am, really?

She ran her hand back through the same hair she'd just tried to tame and gave Targas a more confident smile, appreciative, but holding a fire all it's own. While she wouldn't hinder him if he wanted to help her - something new for her - she also wouldn't hide behind him like some meek mouse either. If she got in trouble in some way, she'd fight her own battle, though, she would be grateful for the backup. And she'd provide the same to him if something happened on his end, too.

"Thank you, but let's just try to be careful."

She acted on impulse then, looking up at him for a moment and then kissing his cheek. She was gone a moment later, quick as a spirit and out the door.

Summer breathed carefully as she emerged back outside, feeling shaky and in-over-her-head, but...happy, too. So incredibly happy that she didn't know what to do with it.

Oh, this would take some getting used to indeed.


((Time-skip to mission?)
 
(Yus.)

Targas woke up feeling like he had had the first deep sleep in the past few years, though he woke up earlier than the rest of the group and went to take a shower. It was cold, as usual, but when he got out and looked into the mirror, he noticed something about himself...something about his eyes. He leaned in to see what was up with them and saw black and red tendrils receeding inside his head. That was a less than pleasant sight and focused his mind. If he was able to ask questions in his head and get answers, maybe he could do the same with this.

He focused and exhaled deeply and watched as the tendrils formed a mesh over his eyes. He blinked in disbelief but his vision was blue, well mostly blue. He looked at himself in the mirror and saw varying shades of reds and oranges. He was seeing a thermal view of himself. He looked around, perplexed and saw faint orange hues through the walls of the guards and other persons wandering about. He focused for it to go away, this was something that he didnt need people to see right now. He blinked and the view went away.

He left the showers feeling a little perplexed and wondered absentmindedly about what else had changed inside of him. He could feel that Summer was still sleeping and that she was calm. In his mind, he smiled at the thought of her and could have sworn he felt a response. He was probably imagining things though.

He went around the compound and woke up everyone in the team before the 6am leave time, almost an hour earlier.
 
Targas hadn't been imagining anything. Summer had been asleep, yes, but when he'd smiled, so had she, waking and her mind immediately focused on him. She could feel his activity and for a moment she got a brief surge of his confusion before that faded away and all was calm once more. Summer yawned then, stretching languidly. She started a moment later, feeling something like a spark at her fingertips, zapping her and the female blinked, frowning at her hands before she dismissed it as static electricity and got out of bed.

She took her gear with her, already packed, as she headed to the showers. Summer knew she didn't have a lot of time, but she let the cold water run over her, feeling it dampen the great heat in her body. She could feel the red energy pulsing through her, a different beat from her own pumping blood, and it was like fire through her system, not burning but definitely felt. It was doing something. She just didn't know what and her body was attempting to regulate, resulting in a mild fever that left her skin chilled but her insides feeling hot.

The woman didn't feel sick, though, and when she emerged from the showers, dressed in her new combat gear - something similar to Targas' and everyone else, but more on the feminine side, form-fitting - bracer on, gun at hip and one across her back, auburn hair braided and out of the way, she walked confidently. She felt more prepared for this outing than she had of any journey into a city in a long time.

Maybe it was because her hearing felt sharper today, sense of smell keener. Summer felt like she could outrun and outfight anything that wanted to mess with her, though, that did not mean she was going to be reckless. She wasn't stupid no matter what her body told her she was capable of...and right now it was telling her a lot she didn't understand as she joined her group. Everyone was in the courtyard, checking over the supplies, making sure they had everything they needed.

Kilborn looked up from his gun as she approached and the man gave a solid nod, but didn't speak and Summer returned it, but her eyes found Targas quickly after that, a faint smile coming to her face in greeting.
 
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Targas smiled in return but turned his attention back to his loadout. He was carrying a silenced M8 and some grenades. The gun had a scope on it as well and he was configuring it.

Everyone had a pair of night vision goggles on, except for Targas. He just had his sunglasses on and didnt seem to have a care in the world.

He smiled inwardly at Summer again to see if his imagination was playing at him earlier, watching her expressions closely behind the protection of his glasses.

Sev and Delta were packing up the last of their supplies, preparing to set out and donning their packs. They were carrying several extra duffle bags in case the rumors proved to be true and they needed to haul a lot of gear back.

"The speculated location is about three clicks west of here in an old maintenance corridor in the subway systems. We dont have an exact fix so once we get to the line, we will have to spend quite some time searching. We will likely be down there for a few days, so if there is anything you need to get taken care of now, do it. You will likely not get another chance until then."

Targas finished what he was saying and looked around the group, watching Sev run off to take care of something on his own and Delta went to the armory to get some more ammunition.

"Kilborn, go grab a little bit more food. I'd rather not run out several miles into this line."

Kilborn nodded and went off to the mess, leaving Targas alone with Summer.

"How do you feel?"
 
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