transfuge | Captured - with peace_inthe

Captured - with peace_inthe_violence & nickysnotmybf

Paris felt like a breath of fresh air after Marseille. The trip had healed him but it was still the most emotionally draining thing he'd done in years. Booker felt weirdly heavier and lighter. It was just a weird state of being that he didn't really like but would have to live with.

He was almost so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't notice his apartment door open without needing keys. Almost. Booker drew his gun and stepped in, ready to shoot whatever asshole thought he had stuff worth stealing. He froze. The woman he dreamed of drowning at the bottom of the ocean was there.

And then she kicked his ass. He didn't expect her to spring at him like a snake or tear into him so viciously. Booker fought for his life but she beat him down and then he was dead.

He wasn't dead in a trunk a few minutes later. Even though he kicked and fought to escape this was a serious trunk, almost like it was specifically designed to keep in a two hundred year old warrior.

Quyhn took him to a warehouse and secured him with heavy chain to a wall. All she wanted was help finding Andy. Booker refused. That got him another ass kicking. She asked again and he refused. Whatever she wanted from Andy it couldn't be good. He had betrayed them all once. He wouldn't do it again.

Booker realized he was bait about two days into being her prisoner. She stopped asking for his help and just made sure he suffered.

Finally, someone was treating him like he deserved. Booker settled into the pain as he tried to focus on how to escape. Very hard to do when he was chained to the wall with heavy iron manacles but a man could hope.

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"Two on your floor, both alerted. I'll keep Quynh down while you get out."

There was a bark from his rifle, followed by the metallic ringing of his bolt working smoothly.

"Tag him with a tracker, just in case you get separated. Please."

He hated the fact that he had to ask, but he also knew that he was still very much in the doghouse when it came to Sebastien Le Livre.

"Let me know when you are out and I'll keep her down long enough for you to get away. I'll meet you at the Echo house."

"Put the blame where it's deserved; that was Nicky's idea."

He smirked over his shoulder and checked to make sure Booker was close at his back before starting to move through the building toward the exit. "Here," he murmured softly before pulling out a tracker and handing it to Booker. It was tiny and usually would get punched into someone's skin. Not really an option, now. "Swallow it. I don't want to risk her finding that and tossing it into a sewer."

And that was all he could do before one of the two guards came around the corner, the second on his tail. Joe charged forward and sliced one from neck to navel while taking a slug to the shoulder. The other one was all up to Booker.

Booker was very tempted to point out it would end up in a sewer eventually but he wasn't in the mood to argue when they were about to fight their way out.

He swallowed it like a good boy and then took up his position on Joe's left.

As Joe's sword sliced through flesh and sprayed blood Booker took aim. Two shots right to the guy's forehead and he dropped. The gunshots alerted everyone to the escape and more were coming.

He caught two in the leg as they rounded the corner and fired for center mass to simply drop the guys. They needed to get out and not worry about making sure every single asshole stayed down.

While the boys were focusing on getting out of the warehouse with all their pieces intact, Nicky kept a sharp eye on the woman. He didn't notice, but he was crying. Silent tears that streamed down his face to drip off his chin.

Shooting Quynh hurt. Every fiber of his being just wanted to throw his rifle and run to her side, hold her and touch her face to see if she was real and there and alive. He wanted to kiss her face and assure her that she was safe and that they'd looked for her and that they'd never stopped loving her.

Instead, she started to get up and Nicky cursed himself as he pulled the trigger again.

"Please hurry. I do not know how much longer I can keep hurting her..."

Joe could hear the pain in Nicky's voice. This had to be killing him, shooting Quynh over and over again. It was enough to have Joe focus like a laser on what had to be done next: getting out of here and back to his husband.

The next turn led them into a small team of men. Ten of them between the immortals and the door. None of them stood a chance. Joe charged and ignored the shot to his stomach and chest as he sliced one man across the neck and effortlessly stabbed halfway into another. His scimitar was perfect for this sort of fast, ruthless battle. "Get them down," he shouted needlessly at Booker as he rounded on the third fighter and slashed his face to distract him while stealing the gun and using it to put a bullet in the forehead of the fourth.

"Out that door and just take off for the safe house. We will all meet there if we lose sight. Priority #1 is getting there."

Booker's fighting style was best described as "whatever works". He was a master of improvising weapons and scavenging what he needed. When his pistol ran out of ammo he took a combat knife and a pistol from a dead body.

He shot a man, let him fall against his body, and used him for a shield as he charged the next man. Booker broke his neck and then shot two men dead.

The pain of bullets ripping through him barely slowed him down. He was used to pain. He could make a break for it but he stayed at Joe's side until they were all dead.

"Be careful," he said and then took off on his own. He knew Joe would go collect Nicky and they'd make it to the house together. Booker thought about running and disappearing. He was in exile but he knew the tracker would just bring them to him.

So, he went to the safe house.

He couldn't watch the other two men carve their way through the building to safety, but he could listen to them. Laying there, so far away yet right next to the woman he was repeatedly killing, over and over again, he kept his nerves from breaking by listening to the comforting sound of Yusuf's blade slicing through meat.

He'd long ago come to terms with the fact that it was, in fact, comforting.

Slide, click, pull, wait. He policed his brass with every shot, but he was going to run out of easy reach ammo before too long. And with every shell fired, he felt another piece of him die.

"Report?" He waited to find out if he needed to keep firing or if he was clear to finally let Quynh up and make sure she wasn't following their trail.

Finally Joe was out the door and running hard toward where his husband was still guarding them. "I'm out," he said in a rush. "Booker is out too. We're clear. Meet me at the side door and we'll get to the safe house. Just make sure you have enough of a head start that she can't catch up with us before we're clear."

He knew this had to be killing Nicky. They both had loved Quynh like a sister. At this point he had to have killed her at least six times just to make sure he and Booker were able to be free. Those sorts of hits did not come cheap. Joe's own heart broke with the pain Nicky's had to be holding.

"You did what you had to, maio," he said softer. "I'm sorry. But you saved us. Remember that."

When Booker arrived at the safe house he expected Andy and Nile to be there but they weren't. The place was empty and he felt almost like an invader even though he could see his stuff tucked in corners.

He turned the heat on, checked to make sure the water still worked and the other almost routine process of getting it ready for them all to live in. It's weirdly comforting even though he knows in the back of his mind he wasn't welcome here.

Once Joe and Nicky arrived and Booker could tell them what he learned in his time with Quynh he'd go, he decided. The exile was still in place. Now that Quynh couldn't dream of him anymore he could disappear pretty easily. It would be safe, relatively, for him to be on his own now that he's aware of the danger.

Booker told himself these things so he wouldn't get attached. He wouldn't get his hopes up that his family would welcome him home early.

"I know."

Seven, actually. Counting the first one that had stopped her from filleting his husband. He put another two shots into her to make absolutely certain that they had enough time to get clear, and then he was jerking back from his rifle with a disgust that he hadn't felt towards it ever in all the years he'd been using it. At the moment, it was the most distasteful weapon he could think of. Cold and devoid of anything resembling honor or fairness. She deserved better than that.

But Booker hadn't deserved what she'd done to him and Joe certainly wouldn't have deserved that blade in his throat. In the end, he swallowed past the guilt and broke down his rifle in record speed, packing it up so that it could fit into the bag that he then slung over his back. He met up with Joe without a word. Only reached out to briefly touch his arm before moving to lead the way.

Finding the safehouse set up and ready for them when they got there sent a jerk through his heart and he did his best to not let it show how much he wanted to just drag Booker into a hug. Joe still hadn't really forgiven him yet, after all.

"How long were you there?"

Upon getting to the safe house, Joe started shucking off his clothes and his weapons. He didn't look at Booker as he did so. Nicky could take care of everything in that respect and seemed to be doing so already. He cast a look back toward his husband, just trying to get a temperature check on his mood. He was holding himself back for Joe's sake. Of course he would be.

He turned toward the kitchen and started getting a kettle of water boiling. They could all use some tea after all that. Booker could probably use some food, too, but even the canned goods here were probably on the south side of usability. Could they order a pizza for a spot down the block? Even that was probably a risk they shouldn't take. But food had to be obtained.

But before that...

"And what did you learn while you were there?"

Straight to business then.

Booker moved off to the side and held himself apart from them. It was... strange to feel like an outsider. Joe's anger was a physical shield around him. The tension between Joe and Nicky was palpable as well.

The whole family was broken because of him. The guilt surged in his chest.

"I think... three weeks? Maybe a month. I died a lot." And he lost track of time as the days blended together. "She wants Andy. I think to kill her but she didn't really tell me."

He rubbed his hand over his mouth. "She doesn't know Andy's mortal. I didn't tell her anything."

Which was why she would beat the ever loving hell out of him or kill him.

They absolutely could not order a pizza for delivery. Even staying in the same city was taking chances that Nicky wasn't sure he was willing to take, but what option did they have? If they moved too soon, Quynh would know.

She might not know the world anymore, but she knew them.

"A month? I'm sorry, mio amico. I should have checked in sooner." He kept the words quiet, but he didn't murmur them. He wasn't trying to hide them from his husband, nor did he hide the way he reached out to grip the Frenchmen's shoulder. "I will leave you two to talk. You are not to leave while I'm cooking. I have new rules for you."

He gave Booker's arm a light squeeze, then turned to face his husband. "Let me worry about food, Zawj. Do not kill him too harshly. I'll bring out tea when it is done." He didn't try for a kiss, just a light touch to Joe's chest before he was pulling off his own gear and heading to take a look at what he could scrape together from the contents of the long unused kitchen.

Died a lot. Joe kept his eyes on Booker as he said that and tried to pinpoint what it made him feel. Sadly, not much that he hadn't been feeling already. Part of him was bitterly grieving the Quynh he'd known who would have never done such a thing to another immortal. The other part of him was sour and twisted, glad that Booker underwent some sort of punishment that fit his crimes.

Most of him, however, was hopeful and proud despite himself because, after all that, Booker had given Quynh nothing. Not even the slightest sliver of information. And he was telling the truth as much as Joe could tell from how Quynh treated him. It was a good step. Hope that Booker might be growing up a bit.

Joe looked over at Nicky and considered: was this what he'd been doing all this time? Was this what he'd been trying to ensure? He wasn't sure if that made it better but it didn't make it any worse. For once, that seemed like enough.

"Andy and Nile are likely on their way," he reminded the room. He pulled out his cellphone and tossed it to Booker. "Send them a message that gets them clear of this place and Quynh. You know the layout the best, I would think." And he was also the best and fastest at texting, save Nile. "We need to make sure Andy stays far away until we figure out more."

He glanced at Booker and then over at Nicky before moving his gaze back.

"And we need to keep you with us for the time being, I think." He didn't sound thrilled about it but what else was there to do?

Booker caught the phone and held it close to his chest. Did he know the layout? He certainly knew the one room Quynh kept him in and he had his memories of Paris.

"I don't have to stay. She can't dream of me anymore to find me." Booker could vanish into the wild and not be heard from for years if he wanted. "But I think she has help. She can't know this much about the world without help."

And he didn't know who that help was but it only made sense. Someone had to help her out of the water. Someone had to help get her to Paris. Someone had to help her find him.

"I'll make that call." Booker knew Joe meant a text message but the chance to hear Andy's voice again was too much temptation. He turned away with the phone and called Andy.

She didn't agree with staying away but luckily he had Nile on his side. She agreed that Andy needed to hide instead of facing Quynh. They'd come up with another place to meet up soon.

By the time Booker was back, Joe was sitting hunched over at the table, looking down at a cup of tea. He didn't even glance up when he returned. "She might not be able to dream of you but that doesn't mean you're not at risk. We're stronger together. Well. We are 99.9% of the time, historically speaking." He needed to get one dig in. When he finally glances up, then, it's with a quick glare but the heat behind it is more akin to pot taken off the fire ten minutes ago: still not able to be touched, but cooling down rapidly.

He sipped at his tea and sat back, looking at Nicky instead of at Booker. His blunt nails tapped against the mug.

"The only way we got you out of that place was with Nicky. We just can't take her on alone. Throw mortal Andy into it and the more fragmented we are, the more likely we all end up holding hands in a cage at the bottom of the ocean."

He sipped his tea again, stood up, and walked off to double-check the doors were all locked. Over his shoulder he threw out the parting words:

"Until this is over, you're with us."

There was still that whispered voice, that nagging doubt in the back of Booker's mind that hold him he deserved that. Why not get tortured again? If it protected his family, why not?

At least he had enough sense now to ignore that thought. It wasn't helpful and even he knew it was stupid.

"Until this is over," he echoed with a small nod of his head and then looked away. Those words meant a lot and Booker needed a moment to compose himself.

He wasn't quite home like before but it was closer than he deserved after his mistake. Booker was grateful, so damn grateful. Now it was just a matter of figuring out how they dealt with another immortal hell bent on killing one of them.

"I'll, uh, get a shower then." Because he was a mess of dirt and dried blood. He needed that. Then food and rest if he was going to be useful to his family.

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Captured - with peace_inthe_violence & nickysnotmybf

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I'm sooooorryyyyyyyy I swear work is the worssssst

Dude, I know those feels. No worries! Tag when you can. No pressure.

<3

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