Title: Fight
Rating: PG

Pairing: implied!Taeyeon/Jessica | implied!Jessica/Tiffany

Note: Inspired by the F2P game Warframe. I own nothing, but this flashfic. Happy birthday, Jessica!

Summary: When the Stalker appears threatening a mission and all Taeyeon can do is lead him away and find the strength to face him.

The lights flickered in the room. I knew what it meant and it scared me.

The Stalker was coming after someone on the team. With the amount of assassination missions I’d done, that Sooyeon and Yoona had done combined with Miyoung’s, it was simply a roll of the die to see who caught the Stalker’s eye the most.

The lights flickered again. Where was that damn transmission? Who was the bastard going after?

“Taeyeon, pay attention!”

Damn it! I barely managed to roll away from getting shot in the face. We were in the middle of a defense mission and we were barely getting by. It was a high risk mission and we needed to get this cryopod back into Tenno hands. Who knows what the Grineer did with whatever pods remained in their hands.

“Oh. .” The transmission appeared to me. I felt my breath hitch knowing that he was after me... again.

.

“He’s after me!” I called out when I received another transmission.

“TaeTae, stay close!” Miyoung’s voice rang through my ears.

I looked around and gritted my teeth. We just survived a wave of attack, but we were far from having reinforcements come and practically save us all. I knew I couldn’t stay near the cryopod ‘cause that damn Stalker had an ability to absorb damage and reflect it all back almost tenfold. We wouldn’t survive that, much less the cryopod. I turned to Sooyeon and waited for any response or order, but none came.

It was my move.

“Don’t do anything stupid, Taeyeon-ah.”

Oh, spoke too soon. There was the team leader.

“I don’t know, Sooyeon-ah,” I replied back with a chuckle at the end. I saw the lights flicker again which meant the Stalker was ready to appear. “Anything I do looks stupid to you, anyway,” I continued on before I sprinted away from the cryopod.

“Kim Taeyeon!”

I dashed through the immense attacks from the Grineer and tried to get as far away from the pod as much possible. I nearly made it behind some form of safe cover when a huge cloud of smoke suddenly appeared in front of me.

“Taeyeon, get back here right now!”

Sooyeon’s voice filled my helmet. I ignored her and my heel to get away, but made sure to keep from the pod. Another Tenno’s life could not be risked.

“Keep an eye on that pod, boss, it’s losing health!” I retorted back when I saw the health bar on the pod drop to almost 50%. I continued to run and dodge all of the Stalker’s attacks, while at the same time simultaneously taking down as many Grineer enemies as possible.

“Don’t tell me what to do, midget, now get back here!”

I shook my head and pointed my handgun at the Stalker when he suddenly appeared in front of me. I skidded to a halt and began to jump away from kunai being thrown in my direction. I tried to shoot him down, but every pull of the trigger was useless. Any damage I made barely made a dent in the man’s shield, much less his health.

My heart dropped.

Not again.

“Do you honestly think you can kill me?”

His voice sent shivers down my spine. I was staring at death right in the face. I was about to pull out my rifle, but it felt almost futile.

“Taeyeon, just hold on, we’re almost through here. Keep running, we’ll be there soon!”

I couldn’t hear Miyoung’s voice that well against the blood rushing in my ears. I began to freeze in my spot from fear. The longer I stared at the Stalker, the more I felt my blood turn cold.

“Taeyeon, do you really want to stay with them?”

What?

“W-What? H-How do y-you--” My name? He knew me?

“Taeyeon, just hold on!” Miyoung’s voice barely made sense to me.

“Do you still want to be with these… Betrayers, Taeyeon-ah?”

Betrayers? What? Wait, his voice. Through the raspiness, his voice sounded familiar. I stared at him and tried to make sense of everything that flew through my head.

How did he know me? Out of all of the Tenno he must have chased after, he couldn’t have possibly remembered me. Then again, out of all of the defected Tenno… it felt as if he chased after me for a long time.

“I-- What do you mean… Betrayers?” What was he talking about? Who were the Betrayers? The Tenno? The Lotus? My team?

“Unnie, are you okay?!” Yoona, I don’t know if I’m okay. What was going on? What was he talking about?

“You have three seconds to tell me if you’re staying with them or coming with me. If you stay with them, you know what will happen.”

I clenched my jaw and pulled out my sword. “Why do you care? You’re here to kill us anyway!” I snapped back. I wasn’t going to turn back on my team-- my family, even if things weren’t perfect.

“Taeyeon, what’s going on, I’ll be right there!” Sooyeon shouted through the communication link.

“You want to stay, don’t you?”

I stared at him and growled. I gripped my sword ready to block the arrow drawn and aimed at me. I took a deep breath ready to battle for my life. “I’m not going to surrender and be like you.”

I heard a scoff and watched as the arrow moved toward my head.

“Then, you will suffer like them.”

“Taeyeon, run!”

At the sound of Sooyeon’s voice, I jumped back when the first arrow was released. I managed to dodge it and block the second arrow, but by the third arrow something was wrong. I jumped back and saw Sooyeon in my peripheral, but I also heard the third arrow being drawn.

.

I flipped back and hoped that the arrow would miss me or that I’d be able to block it long enough for Sooyeon to attack, but I was wrong.

“Taeyeon!!!”

I heard the arrow fire and immediately found myself flung back. Immense pain shot through my body when I hit a wall and I expected even more pain when I fell to the floor, but I didn’t. I looked down and saw the arrow had pierced through my suit in my abdomen and pinned me right into the wall.

“Unnie!”

I slowly lifted my head and saw the Stalker ready to leave. His job was done. I was done.

I could feel him stare at me and it felt like he was disappointed in me. Sooyeon appeared and rushed to attack him, but he left in a cloud of black smoke. I watched as she ran toward me and heard her shouting, but I remained silent.

“Is Taeyeon-unnie okay?!”

I watched as Sooyeon tried to pull the arrow out of me, but I saw another wave of Grineer rush into the room. I raised my hands and pushed her away. If I was going to die, at least spare the other Tenno’s life.

“Don’t be righteous now, you stupid midget.”

I softly laughed, but groaned when sharp pains started to shoot through me. “Finish the waves, leader. I’m not going anywhere.”

I watched her hesitate and she stopped trying to free me. It wasn’t a lie, I wasn’t going anywhere after being pinned to a wall. However, I could see the statistics of my suit and my health dropping. Whether or not I survived long enough to get to a medical bay was questionable.

“I can’t pull you down and risk you bleeding even more.” Sooyeon stared at me and stepped back. “When we get out of here, I repeat when, I’m making you take over my shift of teaching the new soldiers for your idiocy, got that? You do not get to die under my watch.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I quietly replied back in amusement. I watched her return to the fight and smiled. At least one Tenno was guaranteed to survive.

It bothered me, though, that the Stalker knew my name and gave me a chance to live or die. I wanted to know who he called the Betrayers and why he felt so familiar, but it was a case of wants versus needs. I needed to live if I wanted to know all of the answers to the questions in my mind.

“Sooyeon-ah, don’t fail this mission,” I called out.

“Midget, don’t you dare!”

I looked down at the arrow in my abdomen and slowly dropped my head. Everything became numb and all of the cries and gunfire turned into white noise.