Living Darkness

by vildtiger

Deserting

Note: I think I will try and reply on comments throughout the chapters, see how that will turn out.
This happens a couple of hours after the last chapter and not made after any of the TF2 comics.

After he heard that their families are in danger, Demo did not waste any time in getting his mother relocated and is very thankful Merasmus offered to stay near as protection. “I can’t put up much of a fight in my weaken state but until I do, Bombinomicon will help if we get any intruders.” The wizard explains the scot, nodding to the book with a demonic face and bomb stuffed into its mouth, lying on a pedestal nearby.

This sentient book laughs from its spot the second it spots Demo. “Ha ha ha! Hi again sweeper boy, thanks for reading me and give me your eye! Best prank ever~!”

Taking his eye was a prank for it?! “You bloody old newspaper! I lost my depth perception because of your prank!” Demo sneers and grabs the laughing book. “Give me back my eye before I introduce you to Pyro!” Before he can open the book to reclaim his eye, Marasmus pulls them apart, saying loudly. “Enough! I warned you in the past and you did not listen! Step away from the bombinomicon before I have to endure more bragging coming from it!” Greatly pissed but since he wants to keep his remaining eye, Demo begrudgingly leaves the laughing book. Does feel some satisfaction when the wizard throws the book into a large box when its laughing got enough even for him. Ignoring the demon book, Demo warns Merasmus. “You better not make me regret this wizard.” It’s a great risk for him letting this wizard- who has in the past been tormenting him and the other mercs during Halloween and when Soldier pisses him off to even consider letting him near his remaining family. And he does not want to return home and find his mother turned into a frog or something.

“I will care for your mother as if she was my own.” Merasmus promises and quickly explains from the suspicious frown the scot has. “I took very good care of her, she died in the age of 40— which was old back in those days.”

Demo blinks, did he hear the wizard right or is he just too drunk? “Your mother wasn’t a wizard?” Merasmus shakes his head. “No, she was human. A witch or wizard may be born by a human but we know from an early age that we are so much more, our magic only really shows when we reach the age of hundred though.”
Oh, well that’s an interesting fact he is never going to use.
Demo merely nods, leaves the wizard and tells his bit confused mother. “Merasmus will take good care of you, mum.”
“Too busy with your jobs?” His mother asks, always with the jobs but well, she is not fully wrong this time. “Aye, it’s my jobs.” He replies and that makes his mother very happy to hear. “That’s my boy! Go out and do your job son— oh Mr. Butler!” She suddenly calls out to Merasmus. “Make me some tea, be sure to bring my medicine too!”
“As you wish madame.” Merasmus replies and Demo has a lot of trouble to not laugh loudly on how a powerful wizard is doing the whim of an old blind woman. “See you soon mum.” He kisses his mother goodbye and leaves, he feels like he did the right choice when he hears his mother asks the wizard. “So where did my boy pick you up?” and Merasmus replies. “Through one of his jobs, he is… very good at throwing bombs.” As Demo closes the door, he can hear the two talking like old people now do. That's good his mother has someone to speak with, Demo knows she's too stubborn to say it but he had a feeling she was lonely when he wasn't around.

Taking the teleporter back to base, Demo does as Engineer instructed and destroys the building to ensure Grey’s men won’t find his mother the easy way. With that done he joins the team and like most of the others; does not meddle in the fight Spy has with Miss Pauling.

Must admit it took him greatly by surprise to hear that Miss Pauling knew about his relationship to Jeremy, the only thing that kept her from revealing it to the Administrator was his act he didn’t care but he cannot use that anymore, not since he allowed Jeremy into his heart. “If you tell her about this she will torment Scout to get to me!” He tells Miss Pauling hard from her former words she feels the need to tell the Administrator about it now. “Which means he will be better off with Grey’s men!” Of course, Miss Pauling does not get it, she does not see how truly cold and cruel her boss is.

“Spy, she is not that bad. True she does not care about him other than an asset but he is still of use for her so she won’t do that much—“

“You don’t get it do you?!” Spy snaps back, why can’t she see it?! “Nothing but her goal matters to her! The only reason I joined this organization was that she has enough power to make the people I made my enemy back during the war does not dare to get on her bad side! She has a finger in the pie of power-“

“American pie!”

“Shut up Soldier!!” Spy shouts at the man, he is not in the mood for that idiot. Turning back to Miss Pauling. “That’s not enough for people like her, she wants the whole thing and with what information I have gathered from Russia, Germany and France, she will be one step closer to her goal! Don’t you see?! She'll leap of joy watching Scout– my son get tortured! And if you tell her, I swear on the man who trained me, I will make sure you will deeply regret it. And trust me Miss Pauling.” He steps forward to the now bit worried woman. “You do not want me as your enemy.” He was trained by the Ace of Spies and he went to work for Mann Co, Ace told him he was the best student he had. Spy pride himself in knowing he has a great chance in becoming the next Ace of Spies and he sure hell will prove he can be just as nasty as Ace can with his information gathering when someone dared to cross him.

Miss Pauling turns her gaze to the others of the team, all of them watching her like a pack of wolves ready to tear her apart if she makes the wrong choice. And that wrong choice is to side with Helen. She knows Helen can be cruel, does not care about anyone but herself but it must go deeper if Spy, a man who said he would greet the devil as an old friend but is afraid of her boss.

"I was wrong about you Miss Pauling. This caring persona you have going is all but an act, you don’t give a shit about anyone just like her."

Scout’s mother’s words still ring in her mind, it deeply wounded her, more so when she knows that Helen considers comradely as a hindrance and does find it amusing watching people tear each other apart. “I won’t tell her.” She promises Spy, but not because of his threat, she has dealt with such for years and although Spy will be a really nasty enemy, Helen will make short work of him if it truly came to it. No, her real reason, something Helen dispises but Miss Pauling longs for. “I still owe you, for helping me when I was in trouble.” If not for Spy helping her out by getting the information she lost back, then she probably would've ended in that shallow grave.
Spy watches her for a tense moment, then he nods curtly and leaves.
Miss Pauling turns her gaze to the others, knowing that making them obey her will now be so much harder. Nothing to do about it, she leaves them to make the phone call and give the report to Helen.
“What is your command?” She asks the moment she has finished the report.

“Return back to the mission fighting the mining robots.” Helen replies and after the sound of her exhaling her smoke. “You will get your new scout in a month or so.”

Miss Pauling freezes up, she knows Helen does not care, but she thought… “But Scout is still of use for us.” She objects softly. “Shouldn’t we—“

“Grey wants your team pitted against Team Vanguard so he can get full control over the alpha machine. He hasn’t been able becauseTeam Vanguard has been protecting it. They are a nuisance but for now, I can deal with their disobedience.” The Administrator explains her in a cold matter of fact. “The scout and engineer’s son is not worth the resources of a rescue mission.”
She can see the point in this, she really can but… “Engineer won’t leave it, he will try and get his son back.” And so will Spy, probably the whole team will after they have bonded with each other.

“Hmm yes, unfortunately, he has this great flaw of being too caring, especially when it comes to that brat of his.” Helen muses and is quite annoyed by this since Dell Conagher is one of the few people still alive who knows how to work with Australium. She might have considered a rescue mission if his son had the same talent in engineering. “And from how he has been around the longest, not to mention has this boring habit on wishing to be on good terms with everyone. The chance of the rest of the team agrees to help him on defeating Team Vanguard will happen, unless you convince them otherwise.”

“How?”

“If money won’t do it, then their demise will. If they desert this mission: I will turn off the respawn to them, they are great at their job but not irreplaceable. Make them stay on the mission, Miss Pauling, this is their last chance.” And Helen ends the call.

Miss Pauling slowly return the receiver back onto its spot, she… she thought Helen would at least consider a rescue mission but… no, Scout is an asset no longer worth her time. How is she going to tell this to the mercs?
She returns to the mercs, noticing that they are discussing where the boy and Scout might be. Sniper is the first who notices her and remarks not really surprised. “Let me guess; she did not give permission for a rescue mission.”
Miss Pauling can only nod.

Engineer snorts loudly. “So much for years of loyalty...” He grumbles and this is the last straw for him. He grabs the map and leaves. “Consider this my resignation.” No more he will work for her, he has lost too much because of this job as a merc. Pyro follows him without a word, he had hoped she would side with him and is glad he was correct on it. “Thanks Pyro.” She simply nods.
Engineer stops when he hears Sniper says. “You are no going alone Engie.” and the Aussie joins him, Engineer is very thankful for that. He and Sniper don't talk that much but they are both on friendly terms and will help the other out if asked.

“Who gave you permission to tear up the team?!” Soldier shouts and the man stomps over to them quite pissed.

Engineer sends the crazy man a deadpan look. “I am not leaving my son behind.” And is quite surprised when Soldier bellows. “And we will save him and Scout! That’s what a team does so I command you to stay put until the rest of these maggots get their head out of their asses and join us!”
Engineer blinks of the surprisingly caring words coming from a man he thought didn’t care for anything other than war. He turns around and notices Demo has already joined them. Turning around he sees that Spy has as well.
The only two remaining is Medic and Heavy. The German man throws his arms up in the air. “Ach! Alright then, it’s not like you dummkopfs can do anything without me sewing you back together!” and joins with Heavy pointing out with a chuckle. “You care.” Which grants him a light punch on the shoulder from the doctor.

“Guys, she will turn off your respawn!” Miss Pauling tries to reason with the team, but they did not care as Spy says calmly. “Thank you for reminding us we only got one chance in this.” Followed by Soldier commanding them: “Move out! The longer we idle the more time the enemy has in extracting information out from the prisoners!”
They leave Miss Pauling alone in the base, and she knows Helen will not be happy about this but can she really blame the mercs in wanting those kidnapped back?— aw screw it. “Guys wait up!” She calls and runs out after them, much to the mercs surprise. “You may not trust me, but you won’t survive this mission without my help.” Miss Pauling reminds them, plus, she thinks she much rather wants to be on the run with this crazy bunch than hunting them by Helen’s command. She won't say it out loud but she has come to care for these men.
“If we have to do this, let’s start getting a hold on some vehicles. Spy, Engineer, you get those. rest of you; grab everything you can carry. Ammunition, medical supplies, and food. It’s going to be a long and dangerous ride.” It did surprise Miss Pauling that this time, the mercs obeyed her without a moment hesitating. It only took her betraying a very powerful woman she has been working with ever since she was eighteen.
Must admit it is quite exciting.

**Meanwhile, at Grey’s secret base.**

One of the kidnappers throws the terrified Logan onto the floor, right before a mountain of a man and that old man does not look happy. “Where’s Frank?” He demands hard.
“He refused, went so far by trying to protect his family that we had to kill him.” The beaded one replied. Logan freezes up, tears falling from his eyes of what he had just heard. “Gr-Grandpa?” Did they kill him? no, no no no! “Why?! Why did you kill grandpa?!” He cries up to the men, they do not reply, instead, he got kicked in the side by the huge man. “Shut up!” and Logan does, the pain on his side from the kick and the grief he has lost his grandfather is too much for his young mind.

Turning away from the stunned kid, the grandson of Frank if what he said is true. “Throw him into the cell.” Greg takes the kid and drags him away.
Leaving Vigil alone with him and Paul demands details of have lost a recruit. “Why did he refuse? I thought you said he would listen to you.”

Vigil shrugs. “I thought that too but apparently, he liked his retirement. The moment we mentioned the kid, he freaked out and started to aim his shotgun at us, didn’t matter how much money he was offered. So he left us with little choice other than to put him down. Quite the pity really, we could've used his talent with machines.”

Paul nods in agreement but if Frank refused to join them, then it was for the best to get rid of him before he would use his knowledge against them or maybe even join another merc team.
“We got the bait, now we simply need that retard to Team Fortress at the alpha machine and pitted against Team Vanguard.” For that team has the biggest pain in the ass to deal with, more so when they too have the benefits of respawn and somehow got hold on powerful weapons. Their last attack on Team Vanguard lost them their medic to one of their spies and those women Grey likes to keep around weren't able to defeat that team as well. Paul highly doubts the rejects will be able to defeat Team Vanguard but if they are lucky, they will do something so Team Vanguard won't be able to respawn. It is about time those two teams get pitted against one another, according to rumors Fortress and Vanguard were supposed to be the RED and BLU team in the Gravel War. Before that happened though, Team Vanguard went AWOL.

**Three days later.**

Out in the middle of the desert, three cars and one truck hold, on top of the small truck, Sniper watches the sky and the moment he spots the one they have been waiting for. “Ignis here.” He calls out, making everyone, Miss Pauling included look up from whatever they were doing.
Moments later the alicorn lands and asks confused as he dismisses his wings made of flames. “I thought you said you would’ve taken the train.” So Miss Pauling has to put him up to date that the team has deserted Mann Co- but cannot say it as Soldier found that word very insulting. Ignis did get what they have done and admits. “I am sort of glad you did leave, never liked that woman. So," He waves a hand over to the map lying on the hood of one of the cars. "what’s the plan?”

“We are heading towards the alpha respawn, Team Vanguard is guarding the place so we have quite the tricky battle to look forward to. We have to get rid of them and take control over the alpha respawn.” Miss Pauling explains, both she and Ignis eyes Heavy when the big man points out. “First we get my sister. She is near.” Oh right, that woman Soldier told was his girlfriend, well she is a good fighter so they probably can use her. “It will put us through a detour but Heavy and Soldier insisted we bring her.” And as hoped Ignis suggests. “I can bring her, it will be faster that way. Give me the coordinates where she is and where we should meet you.” She gives him both and he takes to the sky once again. That saves them some time.

They drive directly towards the place where the first respawn machine is located and just as they reach the city, Ignis, carrying Zhanna arrives.
He barely got the chance to puts her on the ground before the woman leaps onto Soldier and forcing the man into a fierce kiss. Soldier do quickly return it, just as happy to see her as she is with him. Heavy is somewhat annoyed by this but does leave them be, does not stop him from sulking though.

Rolling her eyes Miss Pauling reminds the pair they are here for a reason. “You can make out after the mission.” And after have rolled out the blueprints to the building, Miss Pauling shows the mecs where the machine that not only keeps them alive but also has extended their life. “The respawn machine is here.” She marks the biggest room of the building and tells them hard. “Under no circumstances should you go in there before Team Vanguard has been taken care of. We can’t risk damaging it during the fight.” And takes out the papers she has on this team they soon has to face, which is not much. Only the scout, spy, medic and engineer were from Helen’s Team Vanguard, the rest the scout picked up after he went AWOL. “These four were once mercs for Mann Co like you, but the scout: Jack Russell brought them with him when he left Mann Co’s service. Engineer, you might recognize him.”

That he sure does, that scout was the very first he was on team with during the War Games, rumors said he died from a respawn failure but from how Jack here seemed fine during the battle on Grey’s island, he say that’s a load of bullshit– unless this is Jack’s other. “Yeah, I know him. Remember we made fun he was more suited to the soldier class with the drill sergeant thing he had going.” He returns the paper back to Miss Pauling. “Thought he died but I guess it was only his other that kicked the bucket?” But to his and the others surprise, Miss Pauling shakes her head. “Not at all. The spy and medic made those false papers as a coverup.”

Spy takes the files on the once BLU medic and notices that this one looks awfully alike to the disguised form Ace chose before he revealed himself. Why did he choose this medic’s for his disguise?
Reading further, he realizes why. According to the files, this man is the son of Ace himself! This surprises Spy, he wasn’t aware that Ace had any children but it does explain why the master spy never went to screw with the Administrator. He is surprised that the son of Ace is not a spy, does wonder why but whatever the reason he feels like he has to test this one's strength, see who is the better of the two.

“When they took us, prisoners. I noticed their eyes weren’t grey as yours back when your body and soul were split.” Miss Pauling explains, snapping Spy out from his own thoughts.

“So they figured out how to become whole like us?” Demo asks and Miss Pauling nods, guess they are on equal foot when it comes to that. “Right, so how to beat them? Last time they kicked our ass before they disappeared as Spy does during every battle.”

Spy sends Demo an offended stare for using him to the figure of speech. “We underestimated them simply because we were used to fighting ourselves.” He points out and knows this time they can’t risk making the same mistake. “We can’t let them get the upper hand this time. We won't come back if we die.”

That she agrees on but Team Vanguard has the upper hand in this upcoming battle. They have the home field advantage by having a whole building to keep them protected, plus they also have respawn. A frontal assault will be suicide, well unless they have the respawn. “I have a plan but some of you might not like it.” The mercs give her a wary stare at what she has in mind. They all remember how well her last time as their supervisor went, and back then they still had respawn to count on.

Author's Note:

if you have any ideas on how the Administrator can retaliate for the mercs deserting, feel free to suggest cuz I have NO idea what she will do to them.

and to the comment from the last chapter

to Starlight Nova:
Mann Co is the company the mercenaries of TF2 works with during the Gravel Wars, it is also the company that gives the mercs their weapons, so yeah, it is pretty much a staged war.