Multifandom Oneshot Book

Scene - Infiltration

He checked his gear as he stepped out of the closet he'd changed out of his tuxedo in; harness secure pouch had all the equipment he'd brought for the infiltration and his trusty silver throwing knife was in his thigh sheath.

"Rogue, this is Teif, come in Rogue."  Diath's ear comms crackled into life with Strix's voice.

"I hear you Teif, what's the status?"

"I've got Shambleface in my sights, he's busy with his consort."

"Gotcha, I'm gonna check in with Juniper, keep your wits about you Teif okay?"

"Understood. Make sure you stay safe Rogue, you're no good to Him dead remember. Teif out."

Diath switched channels to check in with Evelyn. "Juniper? Do you copy?"

A brief pause went by before the other woman's melodious voice spoke in Diath's ear. "I'm receiving you loud and clear Rogue sweetie."

A sigh slipped past Diath's lips with a small chuckle. "What's your report? How many guards are on our friend?"

"Two. Just two. I've got Lightfall ready to take them if they dare hurt him."

"Easy Juniper, we don't know if Shambleface has a kill switch on Bard. There's still a chance he'll execute the target at the slightest suspicious disturbance."

Evelyn sighed, "Copy that. He's just looking really pale and I'm worried about him."

"I know. We all are. But we're gonna save him okay. Just keep an eye on those guards while I get the thing I came here for. Rogue out." He turned off the comms and made his way to the target. While Evelyn was watching a captured ally and Strix was keeping an eye on their enemy, he was here to secure the source of their foe's power. A hard drive known as the "Heart Of Sorrow."

The corridors were only lit with dim spotlights for mood and atmosphere, providing Diath with plenty of shadows to hide in as he snuck through the building. He knew the hard drive was in the basement, so he slipped into a stairwell and tied off one end of a rope and firmly fixed the other end to his harness before he dropped down, smoothly descending ten storeys to the lowest floor

Taking off his harness, he gave the rope a sharp tug, detaching it from the fixing above so none of Shambleface's cronies would see it and find him. He hid the harness in the shadows and made his way through the complex maze of passages leading to the Heart. Thanks to the help of their ally, The Raven, the team had obtained a copy of a map to this maze, so Diath made his way through fairly easily.

When he was only a few corridors away, he stopped in his tracks; laser triggered alarms. He reached into one of his belt pouches and pulled out a can of Paultin's hairspray, misting the air in front of him, making the lasers visible. He'd practiced this back at his place when they'd been rehearsing their roles. Strix had helped him set up grids of string to work with and he'd managed to get his laser avoiding skills to a fine art.

But it hadn't been on a stretch this long.

He took a deep breath and moved, his body dipping and twisting to avoid the lasers in what almost felt like a dance. 

He managed to make it to the final stretch, he could see The Heart just a few feet away, but then he landed on his left foot wrong. He stumbled. He fell. He set off the alarms.

Above, the party stopped. The music stopped. And Strix saw as Shambleface began to leave and she knew that meant that Diath was in trouble. Which meant it was time to improvise. She reached into the inner pocket of the tuxedo she wore and pulled out a flare, firing it at Shambleface to divert all attention to her. "EVELYN! GRAB PAULTIN AND RUN! I'LL HOLD HIM OFF!"

Evelyn nodded and darted onstage, where her target was. The blond-haired musician. 

He was in a kind of trance, barely noticing any of the carnage around him as he held his guitar. 

She snatched the guitar from his arms and clocked him on the head with it, knocking him out and proceeded to pick him up and fireman carry him on her slender but strong shoulders out the room as Strix fired a second flare at the ceiling. 

Luckily for the teifling, she'd begged The Raven to find a way to get the water in the sprinklers of the Zarovich building blessed, and he'd done it.

As the water sprayed down, Strahd shrieked in pain as the holy water touched his flesh.

Using this to her advantage, Strix shot a fireball at the vampire, finally using her magics now he was vulnerable. She knew it wouldn't do much, she just had to keep him busy til Diath gave word that he was out.

Back with Diath, the lasers deactivated and he could already hear guards coming. He cunningly dashed down the corridor to the target and took out his knife, throwing it at the access panel on the casing, only to have it miss and bounce off the metal casing with a clatter. Diath swore loudly, of all the times for luck to roll low. He heard gunfire behind him and could feel bullets just missing him. 

Until one hit him in the leg and he went down with a loud cry of pain as the bullet tore through flesh and muscle, ballooning inside his leg, the metal fragments shredding the delicate tissue as blood poured from the wound.

"Rogue! Teif! This is Juniper! I got Paultin out, I'm coming back to help!" Evelyn's panicked voice came through comms.

Diath immediately switched to the call all channel. "No! Evelyn, stay away!" The pain in his voice was clear and his words were rushed as Strahd's minions closed in rapidly. "It's over. I'm taking out the target." Not giving them any time to retort, he tore out his comms and pulled out what he'd brought as a last resort; a grenade. His fern eyes snapped to the armed creatures that stood around him, guns all trained on his head, like they were waiting to see if the human would go through with it.

Diath grinned broadly, "What say we finish this." He tore the pin from the grenade and smashed it against the panel, sending the explosive into the bowels of Strahd's power source.

And, seconds later, his whole world went white.