Ramirez's finger twitched.
But it wasn't enough to depress the trigger. His hand shook once, tightened, and then released. He couldn't do it, even if that wasn't Maverick, even if this creature was something else just wearing her face, he couldn't pull the trigger.
Renegade grinned, and the expression she made wasn't an expression he had ever seen on her face before. Maverick had been blunt , but Renegade was sharp, and it showed in her face. Her eyes were more gaunt, her cheeks thinner, and her eyebrows pulled down at a sharper angle than Maverick's had.
She leaned in, close enough now that he could sense the heat of her breath. She wore no scents or perfumes, but he could smell the hint of something burnt, and something metallic on her body. Her platinum hair coiled around her head in a mismanaged mop.
Her eyes were cold.
"I didn't think so." She said
"Ramirez..... Ramirez, get away from her." It was Adam's voice from the other end of the room. Turning his head slightly, he saw Adam, Sunny, celex and Krill waiting by the open hallway. Just off to their right Celex had blasted down another pile of the red velvet curtains and covered a struggling Everett to buy them time to escape.
Maverick smirked at him, "That's not how this works, Impetus. You surrender, and I don't put my hand through this Marine's chest. All at once Maverick grabbed his gun by the barrel and jerked him forward. He lost his balance and stumbled right into her arms. Before he knew it she had him around the neck, and her hands pressed up against his back in a threatening manner. His gun dropped from his hands where it hung from his tac sling.
The others dropped into rapid defensive postures, but there was nothing they could do.
She had him around the neck, and at her mercy.
It hurt.
A lot.
Not her hand, or the arm she had around his neck so much as the fact that this was Maverick. The maverick he had gone to bootcamp with, the maverick who had encouraged him not to drop ice skating entirely, the maverick who had come home with him almost every holiday to spend time with his family, the maverick who had learned spanish behind his back as a birthday present so they could dish on other people, hopefully, without being understood.
They had been inseparable for the better part of a decade and now this bitch had gone and taken over her body like it was free real estate.
He clenched his jaw.
"Let's not do anything rash." Adam said.
Maverick laughed, her muscular forearm tightening around his neck, causing him to choke lightly as she did, "I know exactly what I am doing Impetus. So you either come with me, and I deliver you to Kazna alive, or you come with me unwillingly, but you will be dead."
Adam shook his head. The pained expression on his face said it all.
He missed the old maverick too.
Resenting the thing that had taken over her body.
"Maverick, he's your friend, your best friend. You know you can't do this.
Orange light flared from the space just behind Ramirez's head, and her voice began to warp dangerously. Ramirez gasped and gripped at her arm as the choke hold intensified, "That is not my name!" she snarled, "I am not your soldier to command, I am not your friend."
This must be what it felt like to get a dagger to the chest.
It hurt so much.
Like someone had taken an ice cream scoop and removed a sizable chunk in his chest to leave him both empty and in pain.
"My name is Renegade, I am the first soldier of the architect. I am older than time itself, more powerful than the collapsing of galaxies."
Ramirez closed his eyes.
"Then why are you working for Kazna." Adam said, voice in earnest, "She doesn't appreciate what you are. If she did you would be a general leading the army and not stuck here going after us like her errand dog."
Renegade hissed, "I am not here to be manipulated by you, boy."
"But-"
"You speak too much, and now the marine dies."
The pressure on his throat rapidly increased, something hard pressed against his back causing his bones to pop with pressure. He let out a strangled yelp of quiet pain through her crushing arms. At his back, he could feel her muscles beginning to contract, ready to crush the life out of him
Before she could completely cut off his air supply his mouth opened unbidden, for the first time since he had seen her.
"Por Favor."
His voice was choked, strangled and quiet, but when he did speak, he thought he felt her pause slightly ,her arms slackening just enough for him to take in another gasp of air.
Maybe there was a chance.
Maybe a part of the old maverick was still there. At this point most of his hoped had faded that she would ever return to normal, his delusion no more than a pretty lie he told himself, but still he hoped that maybe, somewhere in there, there was a good part of her still left over.
He tried again
"Por favor Maverick, si todavía estás ahí....." Please, if you are still there. His voice cracked slightly, stopping and halting over the words. He didn't know what he wanted to say, he didn't know how to say them. He wasn't a hostage negotiator, and he had certainly never practiced to negotiate out of his own imminent death, but still it felt like he had to say something.... He had to have one last word with Maverick, FOR maverick so that she would know.
What would he want to hear if he was her?
He didn't know why he said what he said next, wasn't sure what gave him the right to hand it out, but still he knew the words felt right when they passed between his lips and out into the open air, " Yo- yo - te perdono."
He didn't know why he suddenly had the right to give forgiveness, or even why he suspected she would want it, but he gave it anyway.
He wasn't mad at her.
He couldn't be.
It wasn't Maverick's fault her past self had been an egomaniacal bitch.
In the next few moments Ramirez expected her hand to come sprouting out of his chest like the xenomorph movie that Adam had made them watch, But as the words left his lips something strange happened.
Her body went stiff.
He could feel it through the pressing mussels of her arms and chest.
What....
And then she began to shake, violently. It was like she was having her own personal earthquake.
Had he made her angry.
He turned his head slightly, finally able to adjust in her Maker enhanced grip, just far enough to be able to see her face, and watch in horror as she cycled through a mixture of emotions.
Rage.
Hate
Frustration
determination , and so on.
With every moment, the structure of her face seemed to change ever so slightly, flipping back and forth like the channels on a TV. her body continued to shake, the muscles in her arms twitching violently against his skin, and then.
She snarled, but then her face flipped completely.
Her eyes widened a bit, her jaw locked in determination and past her mop of grown out and unruly hair, she caught his eyes, and the face he saw behind all of it was a familiar one.
Maverick was here, for the first time since this had all begun.
They looked at each other for only a moment, but a certain sort of recognition passed between them.
And then she said.
"Run."
Before he could speak, her arm withdrew from his throat, and she shoved him violently away from her. Ramirez staggered, and almost lost his footing again, but this time celex grabbed him by the arm and hauled him upright. He staggered to his feet and turned just in time to see Maverick turn and attempt to sprint towards the door.
He held out a hand after her, but Celex grabbed him and hauled him along, "No, we can't help her."
He disagreed, but he was in too much shock to process.
Just as she was about to exit the door, Maverick jerked to a halt like a marionette with her strings cut. Her body twitched, violent and distorted as she staggered from one side to the other. She reached her hands up towards her head, gripping her skull in either hand.
"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!" It was Rebel's voice.
She twitched again, falling to one knee.
"Go to hell!"
And that time it was maverick.
He tried to walk towards her again, to help her, but Celex grabbed him around the chest and hauled him backwards, "We can't help her!" he insisted. Ramirez struggled against him but it was no use.
Celex was far stronger.
He continued to drag Ramirez back, and finally out of sight, his last image of her was maverick, bent down to one knee, crushed under the pressure of her fight, panting heavily.
"I will not let you hurt them."