1.23.1

Romo’s Ploy

The crew visited for a time after eulogies officially ended. Astrid made sure to spend some time with Hammond, and Shaely. To let them know that she counted them, by name, as part of her new home. Even Ricks’s incessant flirting softened to an overt kindness, and he complimented her sentiment.

Tilly came to shake her hand, and they passed a small, melancholy smile between them.

Maybe, Astrid thought, that was all the understanding required. Perhaps it wasn’t just Channelers that could share feelings by mere touch.

If people saw each other clearly enough.

Eventually the ground team wandered off to the cargo hold, to swap stories in a more private setting. Burdened with the unique experience of having shed blood with Karth, some things could only be remembered together.

But as conversation dwindled and hours crept late into the night, Astrid allowed herself to indulge in the quiet.

Tenya and Dell shared laughs over some adventure with Karth the tour previous.

Astrid listened pleasantly, flanked by Anders and Romo, when the lieutenant looked to the gear crates in the corner. Where Rue usually erected her walls and noisily made herself known.

Like he still expected her to be there.

The guilt over Karth’s sacrifice worked to resolve itself. But Astrid still wrestled with her part in the team’s fracture.

“I am sorry, Anders,” she offered quietly while the others chatted.

He blinked, as if to realize both that he’d stared into nothing, and that it had been noticed.

A flurry of emotions passed his face, as if uncertain which to offer first. His disbelief, his anger, or his sadness.

Finally, discomfort seemed to have won out, and his brows knit together.

“I don’t even really remember what happened,” he admitted. “I just saw her on top of you and…”

He’d come right to her aid. He didn’t even question what happened. Even Astrid recognized that.

“You acted on instinct,” she tried to comfort him. "You didn't have time to think."

“I didn't need to,” he corrected. “That’s what just hit me. Like Karth said, I made a choice. I guess I hadn’t realized I’d already made it. That I trusted you that much, or that I couldn’t trust her. That I’d so readily believe she’d attack you for no reason.

“Somehow, I must have known she was the one targeting you, and I just let it go. How could I not have seen it before?”

“You didn’t want to. I didn’t either. You probably felt it, just like I did, and wanted to believe it would resolve itself. That someday we’d all be sitting around making jokes…”

Even as she said it, Astrid’s voice wilted to hear how pitiful that vain hope proved.

“I think I have an idea…” Romo interrupted from the other side.

Both Anders and Astrid turned to him questioningly.

“Rue doesn’t respond to rational reason, right? We’ve pretty much established that,” Romo alleged. “In fact, we learned more from her in those moments she was flying off the handle than we did in weeks.”

Astrid twisted herself to see him more clearly. “So… you want to make her angry?”

Romo casually leaned back in his chair. “And what makes her more pissed than seeing we support you? I say we get in a room with her, me and you.”

“Oh, no… that’s… that’s playing with fire. She finds that absolutely sickening, you know that. If you could feel what I feel when she gets in that dark place…”

“It might just work,” Anders countered from her other side.

“You’ve got to be kidding.” Astrid rounded on him next. “She already thinks you’ve chosen me over her and you want to rub her nose in it?! She will never let another opportunity to kill me slip by. I can feel it.”

“Romo will be right there,” Anders encouraged. “The captain is playing nice with her because he cares about her. Hell, we all do. But it’s not working. And Romo’s an interrogator for a reason. If he says this can work, I think we have to try it.”

Astrid searched Romo’s face next, but the agent’s confident swagger only egged her on, much like their first sparring match.

“Come on, Astrid,” he baited. “Don’t you trust me?”

~~~

Astrid was pretty sure by the late hour that Romo didn’t run his plan past Captain London.

The time seemed to bare no effect on Rue, as upon reaching the storage room they converted to a brig, the first thing out of her mouth was a gripe.

“You gotta get someone to check on me more often, I’ve had to pee for like an hour.”

When Astrid stepped from behind the doorway all the color drained from Rue’s voice, and her face.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Astrid opted not to remind Romo that she’d shared the same response to his proposal.

Rue sat, handcuffed to a railing bolted to the deck. Her body scrunched tighter upon seeing Astrid, defensive and embittered. The blonde’s expression seemed darker than the hold in which she huddled.

Wordlessly, Astrid pulled in a chair and sat, just out of reach. Romo stood just behind her, his arms behind him in a silent show of support and protection.

And Rue glared, incredulous, between them.

“What the hell do you want?”

For awhile, Astrid said nothing.

She listened to the Static’s energy, erratic and altogether unstable. The silence seemed to unnerve the woman, and Rue fidgeted to work her way as far from the Channeler as her bonds would allow.

But while they waited, Rue grew increasingly agitated. She continued to scowl at Romo for clues. Anywhere but at Astrid, who remained as calm and collected as her training permitted. She appreciated it now more than ever, in the face of such blind hate.

“What is this, Romo?” Rue finally spat. “I’m not entertaining anyone.”

“I’m just here for her.” Romo shrugged and inclined his head to Astrid.

Rue grimaced and her shoulders went rigid.

Romo was right, Astrid realized. Rue hated them both for it already.

The woman before her wanted to claw her face off, Astrid could feel it. But she kept her expression carefully blank.

“I have nothing for you, Deathborn,” Rue said stubbornly. “Let your sycophant friends tell you I’m jealous or crazy. You and I both know what you are. You can hide it from them, but not from me. And not from you.”

Astrid refused to take the bait. She’d always known she was more dangerous than the team gave her credit for. Rue was right, there.

“That’s a shame…” Astrid tried instead. “Because I feel something for you.”

She reached for the one thing any proud and self-righteous warrior couldn’t stand.

“Pity.”

“Go to hell, bitch!” Rue snarled and rocked on her folded legs.

“I came to apologize, Rue.” Astrid reached for sincerity. “I'm sorry. For all you’ve lost. Your position, respect. The support of your captain, your friends. You’re more alone than I am. You want me to hate you, and be angry, because it would validate your own feelings. But I just feel sad. I didn’t want this for you. You did this.”

“Fuck you! You did this!” Rue accused. Chains rattled against the rail.

“You were associated with the S.O. before I came into the picture,” Astrid countered. “You lost something before I even arrived. Maybe part of yourself, I don’t know. But that’s not on me, Rue, that’s on you.”

“STOP SAYING MY NAME!” Rue hollered.

But neither Astrid nor Romo so much as flinched, and that only seemed to burn her more.

“You don’t know shit about shit!” Rue raged on. “I lost friends, you stupid selfish bitch! I lost family when Argos went up in smoke!”

“You had family at Argos?” Astrid asked.

“Not in the Sanctuary, you asshole.” Rue fumed, disgusted by the assumption. “There was an academy nearby. Scientists trying to help your kind! For all the good it did them. When your people rebelled everyone within a kilometer paid the price, don’t you get it?! Civilians! My little cousin! My people!"

The darkness in Rue deepened when she revealed such a close connection. Still, Astrid almost welled to feel the grief behind the static of the woman before her, and her pity grew more genuine. The only thing that kept Astrid grounded lay the fervent, targeted blame that roared over everything else.

"Tell me what happened." The Channeler didn't need to feign interest. Having an academy nearby explained how and why Argos built a reputation on such stringent containment. But it didn't explain how things went so wrong if the Statics were trying to help. "Why did the Channelers revolt?"

At that, Rue's head twisted as though she wanted to pop it off herself just to have something to throw at her. As though the very question proved the trooper's point, and it only infuriated her more their places weren't reversed.

"There's a reason good enough?" Rue's voice hit a dangerous new low. "There's always some prize worth the price, isn't there? You don't care about us. Just like they didn't. You don't care who you harm, who you put in danger for your right to 'pretend' to be normal!

"You pretend to be harmless. You lied your way into the company of good men and women, no matter what it cost us-- Like the commander! That was your fault, and you know it! But look at you!” Rue ranted. “You sit there like you’re innocent, like this has nothing to do with you! And Romo and the others, they’re just letting it happen!"

"I didn't want that! What happened to the commander-"

"It was worth it, right?" Rue sneered in interjection. "That's what you've decided? You just tally up the death count and accept?"

Astrid fell quiet. She needed to pause before she could speak from a place of calm once more. But Rue, she couldn't wait to rail into her further.

“It's not over. You've damned them all, and I tried to save them! The captain has no idea what he’s done! He thinks he started something, but the war was already started. He can’t stop it, he just made it worse! He’s going to get all of you killed!”

Rue then glared pointedly at the man in the room. “He’s going to get you all killed, Romo!”

"The captain has faith the Service will ultimately agree with integration," Astrid reminded them both. "Insisting otherwise doesn't make a decision for all of Earth."

"The captain doesn't see what the Admirals do," Rue persisted. "He's ignorant if he thinks he knows more than the Admiralty Board. It's already too late."

Whether Rue felt vindicated, or desperate, Astrid could no longer tell. Her white noise fuzzed too loud with vehemence. She couldn't hear anything the Channeler had to say, no matter how much Astrid wished differently.

Finally, Romo stepped forward and kneeled before their prisoner. Whatever it was he hoped to get from her, he seemed, to Astrid, to have found it.

“The Admirals know what, Rue?”

The blonde clammed up, aware too late she said too much.

“Who’s in the S.O.’s pocket, Rue?!” Romo pressed.

But it was too late. Rue proved smart enough to deduce the reason for their visit now. And no matter how much Romo pushed, she refused to say another word.

Instead, she only glared at Astrid. As if by sheer will alone the soldier could blast away her enemy.

But she was no Channeler.