“Stick to my plan, and everything will go smoothly,”
Are Viper’s words echoing inside Reyna’s head along with the loud blast as she shoots another goon straight to the chest. She shoves him off with her heel.
The walls around her vibrate at the sound of gunshots and explosions from the distance. Reyna grits her teeth. They wouldn’t have been in this mess if Viper had just listened to her earlier the moment they found out that their whole mission was a set-up.
“Ah, pinche !” She cocks her gun loudly.
Heavy footsteps hitting the cement grows louder in Reyna’s ear. She peeks up from the low wall and spots a few more rogues.
“We need back-up! We’re at the C site!” Viper beside her, orders into her comm.
Reyna’s fingertips light up in pink, she grows an orb of pink gas and throws it out where she can see her target. The rogues freeze in their stance and lift their heads up to see a massive hole in the sky that resembles a pink eye surrounded by dark violet smoke. Seconds later, they start blindly patting on their eyes and the ground.
“What a pity,” she smirks at them. “Do me a favor, Sabine, cariña , take them out will you?”
Viper shoots her a wicked stare at the sound of her name, to which the other simply ignores. The short-haired woman rolls her eyes and straightens up. She locks her knees and points her gun at the blinded men.
“Call me that again and I’ll shoot you next,” she threatens her while taking out all of them with a single bullet each.
But before she even finishes them, Reyna is already casually walking into the middle of the clearing, collecting souls. Viper rolls her eyes at her.
More gunshots echo through their comms.
“A bit occupied right now, trying to clear out the mid!” says Brimstone, followed by a heavy grunt.
“There’s too many of them in the garden right now!” Killjoy’s voice is crystal clear, but the shackling of metal almost drowns out her words.
“How are you still stuck in the garden!?” Viper hisses.
“We can’t let them block the escape route, Viper. I can’t lift off yet,” she answers in her usual bright tone despite the roll of her eyes.
“You’re picking on Killjoy now? We’re out here dealing with a swarm of these mutherfuckers on our own and it seems quiet on your side with Reyna,” Brimstone spits bitterly, then yells as he guns down a few more rogues. “Aren’t we the ones in need for back-up, huh, Viper? Or is your plan really just to save your own ass.”
Viper blinks in surprise. She just received a straight blow at her ego, while the rest of the team is tuning in. Her jaw locks in annoyance. There is nothing she wants more right now than to slit Brimstone’s throat.
She’s rarely ever wrong. She’s had multiple successful missions in the past. She wouldn’t be in the place to lead if she didn’t. The sabotage in this mission isn’t even her fault so why are they blaming her?!
From a short distance, as Reyna straightens up from her scavenging, she watches Viper staring pointedly at the ground. She smirks. Everyone in this team is full of pride, but somehow she enjoys it the most when it’s Viper being put in place.
“Sova?” Reyna’s voice takes over the comm.
“At A tower. I’m trying to get a hit at their base from the top.”
“We need to secure the C link to get there.” Viper’s voice interjects quickly.
Reyna, who is already heading to that entrance, casually twists her head to the other’s eyes with an arched eyebrow.
She says, “A step ahead of you cariña ,”
Viper grits her teeth and just before Reyna speeds into the corner, she leaps next to Reyna and pulls her back roughly by the shoulder.
“Wait! Listen to me!”
“Ah, pinche culera !” Reyna tosses the other woman’s hand away, “ Qué ?! What is it now?”
“I have a plan,” Viper tries to start. “We need to infiltrate the rogues at the base and plant the spike there—”
Reyna rolls her eyes and turns away, heading for the C link anyway.
“Don’t fucking turn your back on me—”
And Reyna does what she’s told; she advances on Viper instead until her back hits the nearest wall. Reyna stares her down and Viper points her gun at the other’s chest on instinct. However, Reyna is relentless and doesn’t care. She leans her face closer, caging the other into the wall.
“No. You listen to me .” Her pink eyes pierce into the other’s green ones. “You said earlier to stick to your plan, and here we are. We follow you. And you see what happens? A mess.” Her thick accent cuts every syllable at the edge.
Reyna plants a heavy finger right in the middle of Viper’s chest. “So you listen to me , sí?”
“No.” Viper plants her gun deeper into Reyna’s chest. “ Your way is just to gun down
everything in your path—”
“And it works.”
“It does not!—”
Viper jumps at the sound of both Reyna’s hands planting loudly into the wall at each side of her head. Reyna is in her face, close enough that she can catch her scent.
“Everyone clearing the area on this map. This site, we cleared it already.” Reyna hisses at her, demanding to be listened to. “You plant the spike here. We take care of enemy base. And I call for escape from Killjoy. That’s what we’re doing. Comprende ?”
Viper’s lips part but not a single sound escapes.
“ Comprende?! ”
Viper shoves her away, “Fine.” She spits out through her teeth.
“We do this my way.” Reyna merely stares her down before looking away. “Listen up everyone, I’ll take it from here.”
All the color drains out of Viper’s skin, she wanted to protest. This bitch really thinks she can just take her place? With her recklessness? She’s not letting anyone else take over—
“Copy.” three other voices chorus through their comms.
—but the team is already responding to her as Reyna continues to explain her plan. She shoots her a wretched look. There’s a pounding at Viper’s ears as her blood boils.
“Sova, I need eyes. I’m coming from the other side.” Reyna finishes.
“Copy.”
The tips of Reyna’s fingers glow in pink as well as the marks on her body, her chest, her hair, and her eyes. Her fingers light up in pink flames.
“Not to worry about rogue around you, Sabine, my darling,” Reyna chuckles devilishly, “I’ll take care of them.”
She lets out a wild high-pitched laugh that morphs into a deafening sound as the rest of her body darkens into a menacingly dark shade. She lifts off the ground and charges through the corner.
~~~~~
“Reyna!” she shrieked out her name, with every ounce of desperation ringing in her voice.
She strained her arms from clinging onto the aircraft and reached for Reyna’s fingers as if her life depended on it. As if she couldn’t live if she wasn’t able to pull her off from the ground.
The spike’s alarm was erratic. It rang loudly in her ears.
“Reyna , please!”
She finally heard her and looked up from the ground. Their eyes met — the spike went off —
Images of the blinding explosion from their mission earlier replays in Viper’s head over and over.
They got out of the Haven in one piece, but just barely .
Reyna really didn’t have to take all of the rogues down, the gap she left before she boarded Killjoy’s escape was wide enough from the spike that they could all escape in time without it being diffused. This stupid bitch really didn’t have to risk her safety that much if she’d have just controlled her blood lust.
Viper’s blood continues to boil as she stares Reyna down with a pointed look from across the room. She really has the audacity to casually sit there, legs up on the table, laughing and clapping hands with their other teammates as if she wasn’t a millisecond for being blown to dust just hours ago.
“Clearly not everyone is happy about our successful mission earlier.” Brimstone’s voice fills Viper’s hearing.
She looks up, distracted from her thoughts to see four other sets of eyes staring at her. They all have a similar wit in their eyes. Viper fights the urge to roll hers.
She settles with a light sigh instead, along with the dip of her lashes.
“I’m thankful… that we...made it out alive.” Viper draws out.
Reyna straightens up in her seat with a resounding tut.
“Mm-mm, darling, I want to hear you say, ‘thank you Reyna,’” she bats her eyelashes at her playfully.
Three other people in the room burst into laughter. Viper doesn’t restrain the roll of her eyes this time, she really isn’t in the mood to ride on her petty plays.
“Meeting adjourned. Come back in two hours, we have an assessment with the board,” she says coldly.
Viper turns her back on her team and starts working on the monitor. Chairs screech as the rest of them pull their seats back. Their chuckles echo the room which are followed by the shuffling of their feet.
“Cheer up, Vipes!” Killjoy quips. “Just because another queen took over for the day, doesn’t mean you’re already been dethroned,”
Killjoy’s laughter rings and Viper finally hears the door shut.
A beat passes. She’s alone.
Viper lets out a long sigh and her shoulders drop. She puts her weight on both her palms propped at the desk and shakes her head as she recalls the day’s mission.
“Why the long face, cariña ?”
Viper’s head shoots up in surprise. She can feel the warmth of her skin when she places her palms flat on the desk at each side of her hips. Reyna stands close behind her, the fabric of their clothes barely touching.
“Hmm?”
The other hums patiently. It almost sounds concerned instead of sarcastic.
She turns on her heel to face the other. Viper leans her back at the edge of the desk. Her features are sharp and cold as she stares into Reyna’s eyes.
But when she looks deeper into them, a sharp ringing echoes inside her head. She starts to hear the erratic alarm of the spike again.
Viper’s eyebrows suddenly meet in the middle, shooting Reyna a hard glare.
“Whaaaaaat?” Reyna draws out with a tilt of her head. “Why are you giving me that look, Sabine?”
Viper crosses her arms. “You really think you did something back there didn’t you?”
Reyna scoffs, “Pissed off, cariña , because I hurt your ego?”
“No, that’s not—”
“I have to admit, I was expecting more maturity from a senior field lead,”
“That’s not what—”
“Hmmm, a sense of maturity maybe? I hope you know, my dear, that you can’t always be right—”
“YOU’RE INSUFFERABLE!” Viper spits at her, shaking the silence in the room.
Reyna is taken aback for the first time, but it doesn’t remove the smirk on her face. And it pisses Viper off even more. Every inch of her skin feels hot from the resentment that washes over her.
Years and years of this woman contradicting her at meetings, defying her during missions, contributing absolutely nothing but shits and giggles as if nothing about the mission should be taken seriously. Most of all, this witch eyes her every move, waiting for her to make a mistake and now that she has, she takes advantage of it to make her seem like the competent one.
And yet— despite all this… Reyna has never left her side.
Not once did she ever fail to cover for her, to look out for her, to find her and make sure she’s alive when things go bad.
Viper pierces her eyes through the others. She wears her hard look firmly and she doesn’t even know anymore what it is she’s feeling and what it is she’s so angry about.
All she knows is that she could have lost everything .
“You are careless! You are out of control!” She screams.
Viper swears to herself that she will never cry in front of another person, even if her life depends on it… But somehow, as she stares into Reyna’s eyes, she can’t help the tears that shine her eyes.
It’s enough to wipe away the smirk from Reyna’s lips. But Viper refuses to let anyone, especially Reyna, see any ounce of her vulnerability.
She takes in a tensed breath and blinks her eyes to rid of her tears.
“Your actions earlier literally could have killed you! And for what?!”
Reyna blinks at her, even as Viper repeats her question.
“Were you trying to die a hero?! Is that what you wanted!?” Viper’s voice is sharp and more composed than her previous outburst. “All these years of questioning my capabilities, making tasteless retorts, and then finally getting the chance to shove me off my leadership, only die stupidly because of your recklessness?!”
An irritated smirk forms on Reyna’s lips. She turns away to shake her head.
“Are you that stupid?!” Viper nearly screams at her.
A restrained yelp escapes Viper’s lips when Reyna grabs her by the hair at the back of her head.
“I am many things, but I am not stupid .” Reyna says through her teeth.
Reyna sets herself in between Viper’s thighs and leans in closer. They can feel each other’s breaths on their skin. She tightens her grip at the other’s silky hair to hold her in place, and lock their eyes on each other.
Viper, despite her unfazed features, hears a loud pumping at her ears.
“I wasn’t making a careless mistake earlier,” Reyna says with a heated breath, “I had to wipe them out before they could even think of laying a finger on you .”
Viper blinks in surprise. They stare deeply into each other’s eyes. She finds herself catching her breath through her nose.
Viper doesn’t mean to do it, but her eyes fall to Reyna’s thick lips, then quickly back up her eyes. The other doesn’t miss it. She feels the heat between their skin separated by the fabric of their clothes grow warmer.
“After today, you’ve proven that you’re now susceptible to making mistakes,”
This remark causes Viper to lock her jaw in annoyance. Despite this, Reyna unexpectedly eases her grip and even decides to run her fingers through the other’s short silky hair.
“And because of that, any of your missions can be up for sabotage.”
Reyna’s fingers lightly trail from the ends of Viper’s hair, to trace the line of her jaw, to end at her chin. Her deft fingers tips the other’s chin up, and Viper can’t seem to do anything but let her.
“So from here on out,” their eyes meet, “you will always keep me in your team.”
Reyna leans in, their lips only a hair away from each other. Heat rises to warm Viper’s skin. She can feel the weight of the other leaning into her.
And she wants it. She wants everything, she wants to drown in it. And never let go—
“That’s an order, Sabine.” Reyna whispers against her lips.
Viper’s lids fall, she lets out gasp and Reyna pushes her lips against hers. They revel at the feeling of their kiss. Viper feels as if her limbs would give in at any moment. But Reyna catches her.
Viper resists a moan, but fails.
The other tickles their kiss with a chuckle.
The short haired woman clicks her tongue in annoyance, but kisses back harder. As if every damn thing they’ve been through was only meant for this purpose.
The tip of Reyna’s tongue takes a swipe at Viper’s lips. It causes Viper to let out a shaky breath. Just as she is about to pull Reyna closer to her, the taller woman pulls her lips away with a light smack.
Reyna hums in delight as she stares at Viper’s mildly irritated features.
She steps back and eyes her once slowly.
“Maybe I’ll give more orders next time,”
Reyna’s deep voice sends a shiver through Viper’s skin even if she won’t admit it. Her deep chuckle is what echoes inside Viper’s ears before the witch turns her back and makes her way out of the room with the click of her heels.
One thing is for sure.
Viper is not thrilled to seeing her in their next mission.