Work Text:
-2359 Hours Local Time
-The Border of Russia and Mongolia
-Above the Train to Ulaanbaatar/Beijing
A threadbare blanket was all that sat between a raging blizzard and the two intertwined souls beneath it. The train they rode atop headed south, and the thunderous roar of the wheels below did little to help either of their nervous dispositions. They shivered, not only due to the piercing cold, but also the fact that they were so close…
That lab, those people, the Illuminati, that place…. His home… they were almost a distant memory.
He was faring a bit better than his beloved beside him, but the cold would make combat for him difficult were anyone to attack. Elastic doesn’t stretch in below freezing windchill, and Necro had an idea that his own elastic limbs wouldn’t fare much better.
Not that he thought anyone would attack up here, that would be foolish. The exact type of foolish that Necro and Effie were. Anyone else stupid enough to try and find them here would have to figure out how to even stay up here, and that’s not even including the wind rushing past them, stinging at both of their faces.
He felt a particularly violent shiver from Effie beside him, and Necro couldn’t help but panic. His nerves were shot, the electricity coursing through him certainly not making him any calmer, and he couldn’t help but immediately try to make her feel better.
“Babe, talk to me! Are you still doing all right?” He all but shouted to try and rouse her attention.
Effie looked up to Necro, not able to make any sort of expression. Her teeth chattered loudly to the point where Necro could even hear it over the wind and the train. Not good. They both knew this was risky, especially Effie, but at this rate she was going to get frostbite. Or worse; hypothermia.
Necro wasn’t pleased about it, but he needed to use some of his energy that he was saving in case he had to defend himself. He focused on the electric spark within him, manipulating it to course through his body. It was able to warm him up enough that he was able to start stretching his limbs a bit better. Smirking with satisfaction, he started using his arm to wrap around Effie in a sort of python-like hug, sending the electricity in his veins to that arm.
Effie didn’t even have the sense to wonder what was going on at first, but as he felt his arm start to heat up and go numb from the electricity, Effie showed a bit more life in her eyes, wondering what was going on.
“Stay with me babe, that’s it. Right here. We’re almost home free,” He soothed, trying not to think too hard about how monstrous and strange this all must look to her. He felt his smile falter at the thought of it all, and couldn’t help but look away in a small bit of shame.
“Th-th-thanks, baby. I’d p-p-pat you on the arm t-to comfort-t you, b-b-but I can’t-t reall-ll-lly m-m-move-ve.”
He could feel her start to squirm a bit, no doubt trying to loosen her arm to do just what she said she would. He couldn’t help the chuckle that rose out of him and he admonished her with, “Not now, Effie. We’ll have plenty of time for that soon. You’ve helped me so much already, let me do this for you this one time.”
She was feeling good enough to pout, it would seem. Nonetheless, she acquiesced, slouching a bit more in her now far warmer perch. He eventually saw her eyes start to flutter, and he wasn’t sure whether or not to wake her up. He thought he remembered seeing something about making sure someone doesn’t go to sleep in the cold, but he also couldn’t remember if that was if you had a concussion instead…
Either way, a rather loud bump in the tracks below them shot both of them to attention. Nothing happened after it, but both of them couldn’t help but scan their surroundings, slouching down as they did. They were jumpy, and there really wasn’t anything they could do about it.
Once they calmed down, Necro himself kept his inner current surging while trying to close his own eyes for a bit. They narrowly escaped an onslaught from the Illuminati just earlier this night. He had made a real breakthrough in his self-image issues, especially in all the commotion where he saved Effie from certain doom. There was a resignation to keeping his powers instead of looking for some kind of cure or reversal, but even now as he was saving his beloved’s life again, he couldn’t help the creeping feeling at the back of his head that said he was a monster. That the only people who said they would keep him safe were the very people that did this to him.
He glanced over to Effie, her head nodding up and down as she fought unconsciousness, her eyes clearly heavy from the events of the last few days. He was thankful that she was willing to join him on this escape for freedom. Who knows what the Illuminati did to her. They both survived that place, perhaps a bit less human than they were before, but they at least had each other. That’s what kept Necro moving forward. He smiled at the thought, and nestled further into Effie with his own body, hoping to share some of his warmth.
The moment didn’t last long though. They both heard a loud thud, shaking them both alert again. It clearly came from further up the train car they were on, though it was near impossible to see with the combination of the wind, snow, and lack of ambient light. All that Necro thought he could see were two small, yellow lights that looked like eyes glowing in the dark.
He squinted towards the source of the sound. While he didn’t hear anything at first, the wind picked up a murmur of speech, carrying it towards Necro’s ear.
“… Targets sighted. Engaging now.”
He wasn’t sure if whoever said that (sounded like a woman) knew he could hear her. Regardless, he whispered to Effie as best as he could, “Effie, take the blanket and get down. Someone’s here, might be Illuminati…”
Effie, bags under her eyes, nodded nervously, clutching the blanket Necro offered her around her head and shoulders before going prone. Satisfied with her position, he turned back towards the source of the noise. He squinted again, only this time he couldn’t see those yellow lights. He slowly made his way forward, his nerves buzzing from his fingertips to his toes. He certainly felt warm now, as adrenaline mingled with his current, coursing through his body at a speed he couldn’t control. He took a shaky breath, slowly inching his way further up the train car.
Nothing. It’s like they both experienced some kind of auditory hallucination. That didn’t make sense though. They felt that. How could they both feel and hear something like that? It couldn’t have been a bump, they knew what that sounded like. He looked back over his shoulder to see that Effie hadn’t moved. He felt himself relax a bit and he cautiously made to go back next to Effie.
His world lit on fire.
He nearly went into shock as a wreath of flame appeared behind him, hitting him in the back. The constant cold causing him to feel as if this sudden burning flame was making his back melt. He roared in pain, now careening through the air as a sudden blunt force hit him as well. He crumpled into a literal heap a few feet away, teeth grit as he felt his back in literal searing pain.
He heard Effie screaming, trying to get him to get up, or look up, or anything, but the pain was too severe. He hadn’t seen it coming, and had no idea how someone with flames was even able to get up here.
He willed one eye open, gritting his teeth further as he did, and saw a figure walking towards Effie. He also saw the mounting panic on her face as the figure approached.
He felt something switch on inside him, the sparks of his soul causing a fuse to light. He scrambled to his feet and yelled, “Stay away from her!” while using his arm to throw an elastic punch at least 10 feet away.
The figure barely had any time to turn around before taking the attack. The figure lurched in shock and pain as the punch landed cleanly at their ribs, and Necro could feel bone crack beneath his fist. He smirked as the figure put one hand to their now broken rib. The figure then turned around, baring him down with glowing yellow eyes. Necro swore he saw a Crimson red tail whipping in the wind behind them.
Necro felt a bit intimidated by the figure, but he had no choice but to push the offensive. They were close to Effie! He had to do something! He wasn’t the best runner, but he charged as best as he could, before using the momentum to spin into his Tornado Hook. He used the centripetal force well, as he felt his arm’s bones unhinging to add extra momentum to the attack, but he only hit air, as the figure jumped far above him with what looked like some kind of propulsion coming from their shoes. He looked up and saw the figure arcing down towards him. He readied his skyward uppercut that he learned specifically for situations like this, but stopped when he saw the shoes start to glow a fiery red.
He quickly put two and two together and realized that this was what he was attacked with earlier. He needed to move, but he was able to get a quick look at the figure as her features were illuminated by the fire coming from her now revealed high heels.
The yellow glow was revealed to be a set of spectacles over her eyes. Her hair caught the light of the fire in such a way that it looked like it too was burning red, and a large, long braid whipped behind her. She wore a full suit, and a set of gloves that had metal caps on the knuckles. Black high heels finished out the look, though those heels were about to make his night a lot worse if he didn’t move.
He back-stepped out of the way, feeling the heat of two arcs of fire near his face as he did. She was far faster than he was, and far faster than he anticipated. He didn’t even get a moment to behold her as she quickly rose a fist and hit the train car beneath her with a flash. The train’s roof below his feet almost immediately ruptured upward, cutting into his legs and sending him skyward. He didn’t even get a chance to figure out what had happened before the woman once again used her heels to rocket jump towards him and create two more arcs of fire, this time on his chest, sending him screaming back towards the train’s roof. He once again landed in a heap, a small quirk of his limbs not being able to cooperate when he’s in pain, and felt his chest burning as the cold air whipped around him.
He sucked in air through gritted teeth in a losing battle to mitigate the pain. His limbs felt like limp noodles, and she was far more skilled than he was prepared for. Still, he needed to get up. If he didn’t, who knows what she might do to Effie. He willed himself to sit up through the pain, his back and chest screaming at him to stop. He’d need first aid later, but he needed to make sure there was a later to get to.
As his eyes adjusted to the night air once again, he saw that the woman was once again making her way towards Effie. He groaned in his attempt to get back up, but forgot that the wind carried voices, and saw the woman turn around. He panicked and tried speeding up, but the woman once again started rushing him through the air, her heels shooting air from them to propel her forwards and upwards. He needed to meet her halfway, and he charged up the electricity humming in his core before stepping towards his assailant, his upper body alight with shocks of yellow lightning, using his Electric Shock. She wasn’t able to kick him before Necro’s attack, and he saw her violently spasm with the damage. He couldn’t keep the attack going for long and risk running out of energy, so he ended the attack early, causing her to fall near his feet. He needed to strike while the iron was hot, so he leaned his body back along with one leg and attempted to heel strike her on the ground with his Raging Cobra. To his annoyance, she deftly rolled out of the way, and quickly got back to her feet.
Necro wouldn’t let her continue any further though, and launched an elastic kick aimed slightly above her head. If she was going to jump around with those shoes, he’d make her pay for it. It was also one of his longest reaching attacks, or at least as long as he could comfortably manage in this cold, so it was going to reach her if she so much as tried to jump.
Unfortunately, she was smarter than he had anticipated too. Instead of jumping, her knuckles started crackling with blue electricity of her own and she dashed low to the ground, making a lunging punch aimed directly at his support leg. Necro might have been able to make electricity, but he couldn’t take it. His kicking leg didn’t recoil fast enough to get some semblance of balance under him before he felt his leg spasm from the electricity and crumpled to the roof of the train.
He once again hissed in pain, this time on his back as he looked up at his assailant, her yellow glasses glaring with an artificial light behind them. She regarded him coldly, not so much as moving an inch as she stared down at him. He couldn’t help but grit his teeth harder and hiss at her, “Why? Why do those monsters at the Society want us back? Why can’t you just leave us alone?!”
The figure simply tilted her head quizzically, as if confused by what he said.
“Just leave us alone, please!”
The woman simply laughed at his pleas and said right back, “Oh, I’m not part of the Society, Illya-” she paused to take in his horror at hearing his real name said to him, “-I’m simply doing my duty. Your escape made a lot of noise, and when we hear noises we don’t like, we set about quieting them.”
Necro couldn’t help his attempt to scoot away, as if getting further from her would help him somehow.
“I’ll admit,” she continued, “You put up more of a fight than I thought you would, but you haven’t seen the battles I have. Give up.” She accentuated the command by tightening her glove, and it crackled with electricity.
Necro felt his mouth dry, and he couldn’t help the gulp he made. His eyes darted around, trying to see if there was something, anything that could help him right now. He didn’t know her plans, but it sounded final. He couldn’t let it end now, not when they were so close!
“This is pathetic, Illya. There’s no one here.”
She stepped towards him.
“No one to save you.”
Another step.
“Certainly not the Illuminati.”
Her knuckles crackled with electricity once again. She intended to finish whatever this was here and now.
“Give. Up.”
Necro grit his teeth further. There was no way out. He couldn’t jump off, even he wouldn’t survive, and besides, that’d be leaving-
“Effie!” He said, jolting up as he watched his beloved charging towards the woman, her own teeth grit in determination. It was a feeble shoulder check, one that barely knocked the woman off balance. However, it clearly annoyed her, and while Effie tried her best to attack the woman, the woman simply grabbed Effie by the shoulder and punched into her solar plexus. Hard.
Effie was sent careening through the air, and rolled into a crumpled mess a few feet away. Necro could hear her retching from the attack, and watched in horror as his assailant simply looked on, cleaning her knuckles on her suit jacket.
That horror quickly changed to rage as Necro slammed one fist into the roof below him to stand up. The woman quickly looked back at him, but it was too late. Necro was already up, and he was pissed.
“You won’t leave us alone? Fine, but you take that up with me! You wanted a monster? Well, you’re about to get one. Let’s get it on!”
He coiled his body up, the segments of bone within him unhinging to allow more force to build up, and he rocketed towards her with an exceptionally fast Tornado Hook. The woman put up a pretty good guard under normal circumstances, but Necro wasn’t normal. His arm snaked around her guard and clocked her on the side of the jaw, causing her yellow glasses to fly off her face. The force of the attack literally left her spinning, exposing her back to Necro. He saw an opportunity and used it to wrap his arms around her midsection, and heave her above his head, slamming her into his own version of a German Suplex, his extended arms causing her to take much more damage from the centripetal force they generate.
She clutched behind her head, clearly having taken quite a bit of damage from his attacks, but he couldn’t let up. He stretched his arm towards her ankle, grabbed it, and used all his might to heave her off the train with his Snake Fang, pushing his body with a similar exertion to pulling a truck. He heard her screaming in shock as she flew by his head, careening off the edge of the train. However, she was able to reorient herself, and jump back towards Necro using her rocket boots. This time, he didn’t hesitate. He crouched low to get under the flames of her inevitable kick and attempted to use his Elbow Cannon, his old reliable. He waited for the flash to signify the attack was coming from the woman, but when he saw the flash, she continued flying past him. She could fake it?!
His Elbow Cannon whiffed pathetically and she landed without harm behind him. He turned around to see her fist raised in the air. She was about to cause the floor under him to rupture! He quickly dashed forwards to avoid it, but he once again realized it was just a feint. Her knuckle instead met him halfway, electricity crackling as she sent a dashing punch straight into his face.
This time, it was him who was sent careening into the night. Cursing loudly, he attempted to grab some kind of hold on the train with an extended arm. He aimed for a ladder built into the side of the train that he and Effie used to get up to the roof, and managed to barely wrap some fingers around it.
He flailed helplessly in the wind as the train carried him far faster than he’d ever traveled in his life. The wind was far worse out here and he could barely keep his eyes open. His arm was in searing pain as he struggled to reorient the segments of his bones back together. He felt his arm literally wearing itself thin, and the pain was starting to eat at his consciousness. He could feel himself slipping...
But something foreign feeling grabbed onto his hand on the train. He saw a flash of red which indicated that it was Effie, and he could barely make out that she was trying to pull him back in.
He couldn’t help the surge of emotions he felt for his beloved in that moment and used that energy to refocus, this time successfully getting his arm in the right position to compress how it’s supposed to. With that, he was slowly able to get pulled back towards the train. It felt like it took hours, but eventually, he was able to grab his other hand onto a ladder rung and get his feet situated on rungs below that.
“Baby, are you ok?! I thought I’d lost you!” She sobbed at him, tears running down her face and freezing on her cheeks.
“I’m ok, babe, I’m ok! I just need to get back on, where’s that devil woman?!”
As if to answer his question, he felt a stiletto heel stab sharply into one of his hands on the ladder, causing him to howl in pain and let go with his other hand and lose his footing. Once again, he found himself flailing alongside the train, the wind tearing at his face.
“Illya!” Effie screams, as she lost hold of the hand that now flailed in the wind. She then screamed again as their assailant grabbed a fistful of Effie’s hair, causing her to yelp in pain and lose her focus on Illya. She tried grabbing the assailant’s arm to try and take some pressure off her scalp.
“Enough!” The woman yelled down at them, her rage obvious. “I was ordered to capture you both, and that’s what I’m going to do! You failed in your escape! So what’s the plan now, Illya?”
He could barely keep his strength to look up at the woman. He could see that Effie was struggling against the woman’s grip, but it wasn’t enough. He had to get over there and do something. He once again stretched his arm towards the ladder where Effie was, and slowly reoriented himself back onto the ladder.
“I keep fighting! We’ve fought our way this far, we can fight again!” He yells up at her.
“Keep fighting? What for? Some useless attempt at freedom? People like you and her,” She yells back at him, lifting Effie by her hair for emphasis, “You don’t get freedom. Even if you do somehow get out of this, there will be no end! You and her will have to keep running! Are you willing to do that to her?”
Necro was a bit stunned by the question. He never thought of it as doing something to Effie, only something with Effie. Was she in more danger running with him than she was on her own? Was this something he had selfishly pushed onto her? Sure, they were both victims of the Illuminati, and they both truly wanted to get out, but was doing it this way unnecessarily dangerous to her?
No. It wasn’t his freedom he was doing this all for.
“I’m not doing this TO her, I’m doing this FOR her! You seem to think you know a lot about what our life was before this, AND what it will be after this, but you don’t know anything about us! What do you know about sacrifice?! What could you possibly know about doing something, no, EVERYTHING for someone else?”
This time it was the woman’s turn to be silent. Her jaw slightly agape and her grip loosened on Effie’s hair. Effie then scrambled away a few feet, looking at the woman to see what she would do next.
Necro felt a surge of boldness from her stunned silence and continued, “You think you have this all figured out, but you’re probably just doing this because some monster told you to! And for what? To take us in? What did we do? We didn’t choose to be experimented on! We didn’t choose that pain! And we definitely didn’t choose to be attacked by some crazy woman on top of a train headed to Mongolia!”
More silence.
“So again, what could you possibly know about doing ALL that for someone else?”
The woman simply stared down at him. Necro, in all his boldness, stared right back at her, no longer feeling intimidated by her. In his mind, there was no reason to acknowledge someone who didn’t fight for any sort of cause like his and Effie’s. Even if they were captured again and brought to who-knows-where, there would always be another day to try.
Or so he thought.
She reached up to a communication device in her ear and said calmly, “This is Crimson Viper, reporting on the Mongolian Incident. Targets fell off a train. Survival unlikely.” She then took her heel off of Necro’s hand and stepped back, allowing him to climb back up.
He blinked at her, and she motioned for him to climb back up while saying, “Understood. I will disembark at the next stop.” She then took a finger off of her communication device and crossed her arms, staring at Necro as he climbed back up on top of the train. Once he rolled onto his back on top of the train, Effie rushed over, checking over his wounds from the battle.
“Lauren.”
“Wh-what?”
“Her name is Lauren. I do know what it’s like to do everything you said, maybe more. That’s who I do it for.”
Necro and Effie could only blink at her. This was far different from the woman who had attacked them earlier.
“I meant what I said, Illya. They won’t stop. None of them will stop. WE won’t stop. You and her may be on the run for the rest of your lives.”
Necro didn’t say anything, because he couldn’t say anything. He was stunned to silence. He wasn’t expecting this from this woman, not with the level of attacks she was throwing their way no more than a minute or so earlier.
Effie speaks up and says, “Ok, so what? As long as I’m with Illya, I don’t care what it takes.”
Necro couldn’t help but smile at her. If becoming a monster and going through all this hell was what it took to meet Effie, he wouldn’t change it even if he could.
“The same goes for me. I do what I do for her. And if it means standing up to people like you, so be it.”
The now named Crimson Viper smirked at his statement, and said, “Very well. But I’d like to be clear. The record shows that you got away. I lost you somewhere in Mongolia.” She then gathered her bearings, and made her way to the edge of the train. “You better keep it that way. We’ll probably send out a search party to find you here, and if I find you again, I WILL take you in. I sincerely hope we never meet again.”
Necro and Effie could only nod at her. Effie eventually breaks the silence and says, “Lauren is a pretty name!”
Crimson Viper laughed and said, “It ought to be, I picked it out.” She then regards the two of them with a wry smile and says, “Take care of her, Illya. Always remember what you fight for. Thank you for reminding me.”
She gives the two of them a nod and jumps off the side of the train, her rocket boots cushioning her landing on the ground below as she tucked into a roll. She quickly became a speck in the snow and faded from their vision just as quickly, leaving them by themselves on this train to Mongolia.
“You were incredible, baby!” Effie says, helping Necro onto his feet. “And look! We’re ok! Mostly…!”
Necro couldn’t help but groan in pain as he slowly got to his feet, his limbs heavy from the fight.
“Mostly isn’t the word I’d use, but yeah. We’re ok. Thanks for your help, we’d be in that crazy lady’s custody now if you hadn’t.”
Effie looked down somewhat ashamed and said, “Well, I didn’t do much. I didn’t learn to fight like you did.”
Necro smirks at her and says, “Well, we’ll have plenty of time to figure something out in the future. Maybe we should get you a weapon!”
“Oh, that sounds fun! Yeah, I’ll learn how to use a weapon. Just think, baby, we’re almost there!”
They were indeed almost there. It was still night, bitterly cold, and the two of them surely had some wind burn by now, but they lived to see another day. Necro was going to motion for the two of them to move back to their spot on the train, but he saw one of the holes where Crimson Viper ruptured the roof of the train. Curious, he looked inside and saw that there was actually some room for them to jump in.
“Hey babe, look down here! Maybe we can stay in the train car for the rest of the ride?”
Effie looked down with him. After a beat, she agreed and allowed Necro to wrap an arm around her and use his elasticity to slowly lower her down into the train car. He then used his leg to stretch down there himself and then lower the rest of his body slowly down. The car was indeed warmer, though not by much, but at least there was no wind and snow.
“This is perfect! We can stay here!” She then noticed some crates that were shipping in the train and noticed a word in Russian. “Hey baby, what’s this crate say?”
Necro took a look at it, his mother tongue a bit rusty and said, “текстиль… Oh! Textiles!”
Effie gasped and Necro told her to stand back. He wound up a Tornado Hook and shattered the crate in front of him. To both of their delight, a large amount of cotton cloth was found inside.
“What luck! We wouldn’t have found this without Crimson Viper, perhaps even her attack was lucky for us?” Necro asked. Effie thought about it for a bit, but eventually shrugged, saying, “It’s true, I guess we wouldn’t have found this without her. I just wish she wasn’t so life or death about it.”
Necro laughed with her and they both grabbed a few bundles of cotton, rolling themselves into warm wraps with them. Their spirits were much higher, but the exhaustion was starting to sink in for both of them.
“All right, babe, you should get some sleep. I can keep watch for now, but-”
“Oh no you don’t, Illya!” She admonished while giving him a frown. She only said his name like that when she was upset…
“Crimson Viper was speaking to both of us. I do what I do for you! You protected me tonight, and I’m going to watch over you first.” She then crossed her arms and nodded her head as if to say that was final.
Oh well, not like he was going to argue with Effie. What she says goes!
“Thanks, babe. I appreciate it. I guess I am a little tired…” He punctuated with a yawn. “Do you mind if I put some music on as I fall asleep? I’ll keep it quiet, but this may be the last time we get some of the stations from my homeland.”
Effie nodded her approval at Necro and he smiled. He started coursing some electricity through his body to catch some of the errant radio waves flying around. He eventually caught one and then summoned some electricity to his hand to act as a radio. To their delight, they heard some Russian Opera, a favorite of both of theirs now that Necro had introduced her to it. They both leaned against each other, drinking in the atmosphere around them. The wind howled outside, the train rattled beneath them, but the air around them was filled with the quiet, dulcet tones of an Operatic Tenor. For all Effie’s bluster, she was out almost immediately after leaning up against Necro. He quietly laughed, but would soon find himself sleeping as well, despite wanting to keep watch himself, the rocking of the train lulling them both into a better nights sleep than they’ve had in many years.
Freedom would await them when they woke up, but only for so long. It was as they were told; they would never be able to stop running. But one look at the two of them in the future would tell you that perhaps they were meant for this. Their wanderlust was insatiable, and with further practice, they were a force to be reckoned with if anyone would try to capture them.
Perhaps one day they may even be able to rest for good.
But for now, they sleep, healing their wounds. The wind howling outside, the snow falling from above, and the train rattling below.
"I'm here for work. I don't have time to mess around with the likes of you!" - C. Viper Generic Winquote via Street Fighter IV
"I'll win by any means necessary. I will survive!" - Necro Generic Winquote via Street Fighter III