//------------------------------//
// Chapter 224: Misplaced 
// Story: XCOM: Ranger 
// by Wanderer D 
//------------------------------//


Ranger


Chapter 224: Misplaced


By Wanderer D






Scootaloo knocked on the door to the barracks. Currently, there was only one inhabitant, and arguably the only XCOM soldier she sort of respected, besides Rainbow Dash.

Jane looked up from the bed. She was sitting on it, half dressed in her jumpsuit. She was holding her gun, simply looking at it. Her armor lay on the bed, next to her. For some reason, the scene gave Scootaloo the shivers. "You look like crap," she said quickly, drawing Jane's attention from the gun to herself and showing the ice-bucketful of beers she had brought with her. "Want some company?"

Jane bit her lower lip, but finally nodded, putting away the gun in its holster, and motioning for Scootaloo to sit across from her. She flinched when she was given a beer. "Thanks," she mumbled.

Scootaloo considered what to say. Ask about the gun? Ask how she was doing? None of it seemed like a good idea, so she settled for some news while she figured out something better. "Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are teaming up with Shen to go find this Adagio character," she said after taking a drink. "They want me to go too."

Jane said nothing, simply holding her beer in her hands, lips pressed together.

"I-I don't know if I can," Scootaloo said. "I'm scared. I'm not a warrior like you."

Jane snorted and gulped down half her bottle in one swing. "Bullshit. A warrior wouldn't be in the condition I'm in. A warrior wouldn't be sitting here brooding."

Scootaloo looked a Jane and blinked. "Um…"

"A warrior is not a fucking victim!" Jane snarled, drinking the rest of her beer and cleaning her mouth with the back of her fist. "I'm just here brooding and feeling sorry for myself, when a real warrior wouldn't have allowed herself to become this!"

The situation was already spiraling out of control. "Yeah, I think—"

Jane leaned down and grabbed another bottle of Sectoid Sweat. "I'm so stupid. Anyone else in this ship would have avoided that bullshit. Do you think if Sunset and I switched places she'd be here moping? Hiding under the covers?"

Scootaloo watched the bottle go up to Jane's lips. "I don't think you s—"

"Fuck that!" Jane burped, glaring at her. "Sunset wouldn't have been controlled. She's Sunset Fucking Shimmer. When she doesn't die bringing down a giant alien warship, she fucking makes people's heads explode with her weird inter-dimensional powers!"

"Right."

"Do you think the Commander would have fallen for that? No! That bitch is the queen bitch of this universe!"

"I think you're too young to even know that line."

"If the Commander had been mind-controlled, she would have… she'd freaking free the world!"

Scootaloo grimaced, trying to move the beers away, but Jane had taken hold of the bucket and set it up next to her on the bed.

"She was seeding the resistance while they had her on simulations! She made aliens become traitors while she was unconscious! Annette would have torn them apart with her mind! Bradford would have somehow shot them! Tygan would have operated them out of his head!"

Jane rolled off the bed, throwing the third empty bottle onto the floor and starting on the fourth. "And what do I do? Oh, I fucking kill and cum, like a bitch in heat! What's wrong with me?"

"Jane, you need to calm down."

"Calm down!" Jane glared at her, blinking hard and stumbling a little. She glanced at the beer in her hand with some incredulity before shaking her head. "Why should I calm down? Did you see the shit Stardust went through?"

Scootaloo bit her lip and nodded.

"And what, I just gave up and I let myself be masturbated into committing mass murder! What kind of XCOM agent am I if I let that happen?"

"Come on, you know it wasn't like that. You were manipulated, you—"

"I'm weak!" Jane snarled, punching the metallic wall, hard enough to make Scootaloo wince. 

"Stop that."

"I'm weak," Jane repeated turning around and sliding down to the floor slowly until she was sitting down.

Grimacing, Scootaloo went over to the first aid box on the wall at the end of the barracks and proceeded to disinfect and bandage Jane's knuckles.

"How did I let that happen?" Jane mumbled. 

Scootaloo finished bandaging her and stood up, throwing the empty beer bottles into the bucket. When she lifted it, she frowned. There was something poking out from under Jane's pillow. She set the bucket down and slid the small box there out. "Muscle relaxants?"

She glanced over her shoulder at Jane, who was just staring into nothing, mumbling.

"How many?"

"-just enough. Want to sleep it away."

Scootaloo opened the box and took out the pills, staring at how little was left. "How many were there before you started?"

"Don't know. Fuck it, who cares."

Feeling a cold sweat, Scootaloo stood up, and turned. "I need to tell the nurse—" she stopped short when a hand wrapped tightly around her arm.

"No."

Scootaloo stared at Jane's bloodshot eyes. Somehow, the Specialist had moved fast enough from where she was to catch her. "Let me go."

"No. If you tell them—I won't be able to fight. I need to get stronger. I can't fail again."

"You need to calm down, figure out how much of that stuff you took, sober up and talk to a professional. You don't need to get stronger."

"I failed them," Jane insisted. "It's my fault Sunset…" she gulped. "I can't let it happen again, Scootaloo."

"It's not your fault."

"How do you know?" Jane asked, pushing Scootaloo away. "You weren't there."

"Anyone with half a brain knows!" Scootaloo snapped. "Sunset has magical powers! It's not even normal alien BS psionics!"

Jane didn't answer, choosing simply to sit down.

"You're not the only one that has been Mind Controlled! You've heard the stories from Ember and the others, right? I haven't been here more than a month and I already know that Security almost killed her because a sectoid got to him!"

Jane looked away. "I should have fought it."

"You did!" Scootaloo insisted. "I didn't read the whole report, but I heard from Luna that you tried to fight it, that you—"

"Moaned so hard in the bathroom that other people took notice?" Jane asked.

"This is unhealthy," Scootaloo said. "You can't just… take pills, have a drink, and sleep it off."

"I promised Sunset I'd fight if she did," Jane muttered, yawning.

"What are you talking about?" Scootaloo asked, but Jane had nodded off.

Scootaloo sighed and shook her head, slowly making her way to Jane's bed and taking her gun, before she stepped outside the room. She glanced behind her and grimaced. "I'm sorry."

She closed the door and walked over to a nearby communicator. She hesitated for a moment Jane's words replaying in her head, finger hovering over the button before she pressed it. "I need a nurse in the barracks."


o.0.o End Chapter 224 o.0.o