Scorned (Rainbow Six Siege Fanfiction)

*under revision* Darkest Night

After several more grueling objectives, the airlock sirens subside and the doors unseal with a hiss, making way to flickering streetlamps beating down on blood and rain. A harsh fog, thick like iron, washes over the woman's sights and shoulders and swallows her whole. The eerie droning of the buzzing lights conceals her footsteps as she clears her line of sight, making out only shadows through the fog. Gurgles begin to sound something akin to laughter as she moves through the dark streets.

"What am I looking for here?" Ritual asks softly. "I can't search every square inch of this fog."

"No need," Mira chimes, "Your objective is glowing."

Before she can ask what the woman means, Ritual is greeted by a familiar churning sound, approaching a shattered glass door to find a Serial Emitter scanning the room. Part of her wanted to roll her eyes.

"You sure you don't want to skip this one?" Ash asks her cautiously, sensing her hesitation. "Once you touch that Emitter, things are going to get loud. Do you have enough ammunition?"

"I can handle this, Liz." Ritual assures.

"We're on a first name basis right now." Ash scolds. Ritual decides to bite her tongue, stifling a chuckle. She carefully feels for the numerous switches on the backside of the emitter, beginning the sequence and quickly looking around for the glowing marker on the ground. The yellow lights down the hall flicker briefly every few seconds, like a flash of lightning through a cloud, beckoning to her through one of the doorways.

"Fully on the landing, Ritual." Mira reminds. The woman groans and steps onto the scanning zone, feeling so exposed despite the thick fog, which didn't hide her from the Archæans. All is strangely quiet for a few seconds.

There is a small growl, hardly audible through Ritual's thick helmet. A Grunt tears through the air with its pointed arms, leaping towards her, to which she swiftly catches it under her arm and silences it with a knife. It melts onto the landing below, smothering the only light in the room.

The scan seems to drag on endlessly with Ritual being the only one on the landing. She has to fight mercilessly to finish each one, dodging and weaving around sharp limbs and projectiles, often slamming a hand or tapping her foot onto the zone simply to keep it from resetting between waves and waves of Archaean havoc. To her, it felt like an awful game of Twister, yet she persists through each one with brute force and a helping heap of athletic prowess.

"Good work." Ash commends as Ritual takes solace in the quiet airlock. "I'm... Proud you made it through that alone."

"Thanks..." Ritual heaves a sigh of relief, still exhausted. She knew better than to say she'd told her so, especially when she knew that Ash already knew it, too. "...Liz."

"Now, now..." Thermite addresses, stopping Ash from saying anything in return. "We've been tailing an Elite Archie for some time since Gunner's been gone." He says Gunner's name tenderly as though it'd set the woman off. "Getting their attention is easy for you."

"Usually." Ritual hums.

She wastes no time killing any and every Archaean she finds, swift and brutal in her assault, relentlessly tearing through the swarms in hopes of drawing out the bigger fish.

The numbers in the zone seem to dwindle and dwindle away until there is nothing but the sound of severed live wires buzzing around her. She turns curiously and stops at the edge of the zone.

There is a sudden, loud rumble, taking Ritual's attention. She can feel her feet lock against the ground, turning slowly over her shoulder, bracing.

"There you are." She whispers, holding her breath.