maybe we show some mercy

[falsify]

[Usually, facing your fears means discovering they're not as bad as they seemed in your head. That your mind catastrophises and exaggerates and the reality is nowhere near what it seemed. Eames certainly wishes that were the case here, but it turns out the reality is far worse than anything that crossed his mind. He'd long since come to terms with the idea that getting caught meant death, but the captain of this discreet little crew made a point of talking about "re-education" with such conviction that it seems like a very real possibility. A real possibility that terrifies Eames in ways he didn't even know he could feel.]

[It's hard not to be mad at himself, and in fact he is. He's fucking furious. Years of being meticulous about hiding from the Empire rendered obsolete because some asshole wanted to make some quick money and Eames hadn't spotted the signs even though that's exactly the kind of thing he's supposed to be good at. And now here he is, bound in a cell on a ship, no idea how long he's been here or where they are — no idea about much of anything outside this room, actually — pumped full of power inhibitors to make doubly sure he can't escape.]

[Fucking hell but it hurts. Hands cuffed behind his back, made to stay on his knees for... A long time. Simultaneously can't feel his legs and yet the muscles burn and ache. All of him a mess of cuts and bruises, a mix of injuries from fighting back and some from cruelty passed off as discipline. He thinks his nose might be broken and one of his eyes is swollen into a semi-permanant squint. The longer he kneels here, the more Eames thinks the inhibitor injections were less about preventing escape and more about making sure he couldn't heal away the beatings; making sure he'd suffer through every moment of the trip "home."]

Comments

[specifiercity]

[This is the most like an action hero Arthur's ever been. They've been in this game for a while, he and Eames, and it involves more stealing than shootouts, but Arthur's put all of his manhunting and gun-wielding skills to the test on this mission and so far he's been successful. He doesn't plan on letting that change.]

[He's only been on the ship a couple minutes now, though with the few encounters with (now dead) skrulls and his hyper vigilance about obscuring or shooting out every security camera he can see, on top of the fact that he's finally so close to his goal, it feels like an hour. Luckily it's not a huge ship, and Arthur made sure to break into it close to where he thinks they're keeping Eames, so it's only a matter of time before he finds a single locked door in the detention quarters and puts a small explosive on the handle to break it open.]

[His heart races when the door swings open and there's a man - a skrull - kneeling on the ground and Arthur realizes that this could be him but he's never seen him this way before. His voice is urgent, full of adrenaline as he points his gun at the potential imposter and speaks.]

Eames?

[falsify]

[The explosion gets his attention, of course. Eames looks up, eyes wild with panic and confusion at what's happening. Aside from the injuries, he doesn't look so different like this; green skin and segmented chin, a little bigger than usual, but his face certainly hasn't changed much beyond that.]

[Arthur's face is a welcome sight, one Eames was certain he'd never see again, and it's that certainty that makes him questions how real it really is. Given the passion with which they're taught to hate traitors, this sort of thing isn't something he'd put beyond them. Especially not if there was some useful information to be gleaned.]

[His voice is weak when he answers — in the common Skrullian rather than English — ragged and slurred, but the way he tilts his head and raises an eyebrow with a sneer is very much him. The same expression he wears when he has the misfortune to get stopped at a DNA scanner.]

Get bored of the beatings? [He scoffs and juts his chin out in a gesture at Arthur's face.] You're better at that than I thought you'd be, Jhn'nr.

[specifiercity]

[The bruises obscure Eames' features a little bit, but the look he gets is more convincing than anything else he could have done. The Skrullian catches him off guard and it takes him a couple seconds to figure out that Eames doesn't trust him to be him, which throws a wrench into this whole grab and run scenario he had planned out.]

[His posture sags briefly as he lets out a hard breath, first trying to decide how best to convince Eames that he's himself and then moving on to something more important.]

Come on, we don't have time for this.

[It's almost a plea, but it's more impatience, as the next moment he's remembering to look for a security camera and he shoots at the one in the corner of the room. Better late than never. He puts the energy blaster equivalent of a safety back on and slips the gun into the holster on his back, walking around behind Eames and kneeling down to grab the handcuffs, pulling them (a little roughly) out and away from Eames so he can shoot through the middle of them with a pistol to at least give Eames the freedom of his arms back. He's just hoping by now Eames is at least convinced enough not to turn around and deck him.]

[falsify]

[Yeah, okay. That's Arthur. Anybody trying to replicate a friend or lover would be more tender than this. The fact that the impatience is a relief almost makes Eames laugh, but there's more important things to deal with.]

[Once his hands are free, Eames tries to stand, but he's been on his knees so long his legs are weak and he stumbles, just about managing to get himself to a wall for stability instead of falling on his face.]

Arthur? How--

[He tries to pull himself fully upright, grunting in pain as he does. Expression and voice desperate when he looks at Arthur.]

You have to go. They'll kill you.

[specifiercity]

Yeah, they've been trying.

[He takes the big gun back out, pausing to listen for footsteps and then look at Eames, trying to evaluate how mobile he is. He took this into account, of course, but the fact that he's barely holding himself up is not ideal.]

Can you walk? The way out's not far.

[falsify]

Do I have a choice.

[If he wants to get off this ship he doesn't, and in this moment there isn't much Eames wants more than to be on his own ship. If it comes down to it, he surrendered for Arthur's sake once, he'll do it again, but it sure would be nice if they both made it home.]

[It's why he's forcing down the panic and gritting his teeth through the pain, reaching for Arthur with a hand and holding himself up with the other.]

You're going to have to help me. I've been on my knees for... Since they brought me here.

[specifiercity]

Okay.

[If Arthur sounds and looks like he's recalculating, it's because he is, but he quickly slips an arm around Eames' back, tucking himself under Eames' shoulder to hold him up. The gun he's using can be wielded with one hand, but he still stops to consider whether he should switch out to the pistol for some ease of movement.]

[An alarm suddenly goes off, signalling that word of Arthur's break-in has finally reached and been verified by the ship's command. It catches his attention but doesn't change his disposition at all.]

I already broke all the locks between here and the ship. It's a straight shot. Come on.

[He starts to move, careful not to push Eames too fast.]

[falsify]

[Eames slips an arm around Arthur's shoulders to put some of his weight on him. He desperately doesn't want to slow them down, but his legs feel like dead weight and every movement sends shocks of pain through his body.]

[But if he's slowing them down, he can at least be useful. Eames looks up at one of the alarms and then at Arthur.]

Give me your pistol.

[specifiercity]

[Arthur hastily gets the pistol back out from its holster at his belt and hands it to Eames, resuming his position supporting him as he tries to get going again, looking up and down the halls with something that falls just short of being panic.]

[falsify]

[His hands are shaky from being bound for so long, and he's pretty much only got one eye right now, but a lifetime of military training helps him compensate for everything that's wrong with him right now.]

[Either that or it's dumb luck that has Eames shoot the first guy that comes around the corner behind them in the face. Regardless, Eames tries to keep looking around them so Arthur can focus on moving forward.]

It's a small crew, they wouldn't waste more people than necessary on a prisoner transport.

[So hopefully they shouldn't have much of a problem getting out of here. Especially with Arthur taking out security on his way, all anyone knows for sure is a Terran was in the detention centre.]

[specifiercity]

[The way back is much quicker even with Eames slowing him down, and they finally turn the corner into the hallway toward the airlock that Arthur broke in through. Their ship is helpfully attached to the outside of the Skrull vessel with some modified mining equipment like a very large tick - it'll only release its hold on the busted airlock door if it's controlled from the cockpit and Arthur's managed to rig it to be an airtight doorway into their hull, locked on both sides via voice command.]

[It took a lot of modifying to get this plan over 50% certainty of success. At this point adrenaline is the only thing keeping Arthur's eyes open. It's also the only thing that keeps his gun somewhat stable as he starts shooting the guards already trying to pry off the the huge mining claws designed to dig into solid metal asteroids.]

[falsify]

[And here he was hoping the rest of the crew would be running around the ship confused and they could escape into space with no problems, but obviously that's asking for too much. Still, Eames follows suit, shots slow but accurate for it. He'd be impressed bu Arthur's ingenuity if he could really take it in, but right now all he's aware of is the soldiers between him and his ship.]

[specifiercity]

[When they finally make it to the airlock, Arthur shouts some nonsense (Lake Michigan) and the door into their hull opens. He starts to push Eames through and turns around to cover them.]

Get up to the cabin if you can - we're ready to make an NLS jump as soon as I make it back up to the deck and detach this thing.

[falsify]

[It's slow going, but Eames makes it up and practically throws himself into the cockpit. Almost falling on the console when he tries to get into the seat, leaving a nice smear of green blood all over everything in the process as he rushes to boot up the weapons array.]

[specifiercity]

[Arthur follows Eames through as soon as he's clear, shouting his voice command to get the door to close again and getting to the cockpit just after Eames. He sees what Eames is doing just as he hits the button to start the mining equipment's detaching process and slips back into the captain's chair.]

We don't need those.

[He starts flipping switches to get the engine engaged again. He doesn't want to brag but he has this down to less than a minute, the most time consuming part of which he begins now; an agonizing fifteen second search for the clearest route out of here back to a system they'll be hard to track back to.]

[falsify]

I'll feel better with the weapons on, just in case.

[Even if it's taking just about everything he's got to focus on this instead of just passing the fuck out. They have pretty much the most advanced weapons you can put on a ship this size, and right now knowing he's got that at his fingertips is doing wonders for keeping Eames from giving in to the panic sitting in his chest.]

[specifiercity]

[Arthur glances that way as if to assess how Eames is actually doing, but he has to look back to finally find a route a route, setting up the ship to automatically reorient itself as soon as the mining equipment is stowed.]

Strap in, we've got about twenty seconds.

[falsify]

[Eames does as he's told, buckling up and reclining in the chair with a deep frown on his face. He should probably be laying down instead of here, the pain is making that abundantly clear, but he's here now so he's just going to have to sit through it.]

[specifiercity]

[Arthur watches their security systems closely, but as he suspected the broken airlock has prevented anyone from trying to get in the same way he and Eames did and it takes a little while for their ship's defense systems to activate, much less find a smaller, still cloaked ship so close to the surface.]

[He counts down the seconds before they go and then they go, reaching near light speed far quicker than a Skrull transport ship has any business being able to follow or track, probably melting off a significant part of the hull behind them. The journey's set to be about an hour, and once they're underway the ship's steady enough to undo seatbelts, so that's what Arthur does, practically leaping out of his chair to help Eames get out of his.]

Do you think they put a tracker on you? We'll need to ditch it and move again if they did.

[He's already patting down Eames' clothes for anything they could have put on him, and then he wraps an arm around him with every intention of getting him to their main cabin where he can lay down on a bunk and Arthur can look at his wounds.]

[falsify]

I don't know-- Probably not. It's not like they expected me to try and escape.

[He grimaces with the jostling, and then Arthur's getting him out of the seat and Eames doesn't have the energy to protest so he just goes with it all.]

[specifiercity]

[Arthur gets him to a flat surfaces and tries to lay him down, turning away immediately to pick up a small tool that'll cut through the handcuffs and get them off, stopping just to get a damp cloth so he can start washing away some of this blood as well. He's not planning on slowing down to stop any time soon, not until Eames is at least looking better than he is right now.]

[falsify]

[He didn't have the energy to protest, but that changes when Arthur starts cleaning him up. Especially when his cloth passes over a cut and Eames hisses in pain, immediately trying to push Arthur's hands away. He's fine this is just a temporary problem.]

[specifiercity]

Eames, let me do this.

[His voice is a little bit on the panicky side, going right back in with the cloth to keep cleaning Eames' face.]

[falsify]

[He keeps flinching away from Arthur, groaning weakly in protest.]

I'm fine, I just need to sleep.

[specifiercity]

You look awful.

[This is delivered as if it's meant to be some sort of justification for him to continue.]