Belloq chose...poorly

[archeologue]

Who: Tuco and Belloq, Niko and Belloq, Una and Belloq, and open to others as desired
What: Threads of Belloq's bad choices coming back to haunt him. All threads of comeuppance are welcome here.
When: First thread after this thread with Tuco when Belloq was announcing Niko's "death." All other threads after Niko returns alive and well.
Where: All around Blackway.
Notes & Warnings: Swearing. Probably much swearing. Threats of violence. Others tba.

Comments

[una_persson]

It wasn't as if she could fail to see him coming; she jerked back and took a step away.

"Can't I?" She shook her head, almost sadly. "Is that what Niko said when you left him? Ah, Rene, you've made the classic mistake of thinking that I'm actually a nice person. Which is fair enough, since it seems I made the same mistake with regard to you."

And with that, she flicked a button on the transporter control and vanished.

Not that she actually meant to leave him. Let him stew for ... oh, it wouldn't even have to be that long to put the fear of God in him, would it? Ten minutes, perhaps?

In the transporter room back on Quadratus, she set her watch and sat back to wait.

[archeologue]

"No!" he shouted as Una vanished. And then he was abandoned here, in this place which made no sense, but was very obviously dangerous.

He had to stay alive, that was his first priority. He fell immediately into the old patterns of the Great War. Down here was safer than up there, so down here he'd stay. He took handfuls of dust in his hands and smeared it over his face and his white linen suit so he would blend in better to his surroundings.

But beyond that, he had no weapon, no food, no supplies, not so much as a compass to help him find his way. Logically, he knew there was no way he would be likely to survive this.

It had all gone so wrong.

[una_persson]

Meanwhile, Una finished her latest cigarette and stepped back onto the transporter pad.

She'd had time now to feel a little guilty about what she'd just done. There was always the chance that something might go terribly wrong and Belloq would get killed—even if the warriors of that age had plenty on their minds without having to pay attention to him. As well, the more she thought about it, the more this gesture seemed ... a bit childish. It was the metatemporal equivalent of hanging someone off a high ledge by their ankles to frighten them.

Still, it *had* cheered her up a bit. And hopefully underlined to Belloq just how dangerous she actually was, which was much of the point.

She touched the controls and in a glimmer of light, she reappeared at the edge of the hollow. She stared down at Belloq, at what he'd done to himself—and she was soldier enough to understand—and sighed.

"Come on, you fool," she said, extending her hand. "I'm not a nice person, but I'm not as cruel as all that."

Chaos was surging up toward them now, a mass of seething creatures that were not quite men, not quite beasts. As soon as Belloq took her hand, she would activate the transporter recall and return them to Quadratus.

[archeologue]

He hesitated to take her hand for a moment, but only for a moment. She was his only hope out of this place and he couldn't afford suspicion. He took her hand in a firm grip and waited for whatever would come next.

[una_persson]

She wrapped her hand firmly around his wrist, in a way that made it clear she wasn't going to let him go, and triggered the transporter. Only when they were safely materialised did she release him—and that she did quickly.

She resisted the urge to wipe her hand off on her trousers and folded her arms, watching him. After a moment she took a clean handkerchief out of her pocket and handed it to him.

"I suppose you'd like to know why," she said, after giving him some time to recover.

[archeologue]

He took the handkerchief, wiped the dust off his hands, his face. He pulled in a few deep and steadily breaths before responding.

"For you, or for Niko, I imagine. Or perhaps for both deceptions."

[una_persson]

"The injury done to Niko, the matter of my own wounded pride—" a little self-conscious, theatrical irony on that phrase, "yes, there's that, but here's the real point."

She sat down on the edge of the transporter platform and, with a nod of her head, indicated that he should do the same.

"They didn't hire me as a Travel Agent just because I was an actress with a pretty face," she said. "Nearly every sentient being passes through time in a linear mode, but I don't. I haven't since I was very young. I have rescued people from temporal zones even more hellish than the one you saw, and I've left men suspended in Limbo on the point of life and death for all eternity." She wasn't bragging; it was just a flat, calm statement of fact. "I could have helped you. I also could have destroyed you. But you've lost your chance at the former, and you just don't rate the latter."

[archeologue]

He sat at her urging. He didn't dare not to. He listened, only half understanding, just as he could only half understand what he saw in that place she took him. But he understood enough to comprehend her point.

"I have not trusted in others to help me or save me in a very long time. Perhaps that is to my folly. Although my opinion may be worth little to you now, I do like you. And Niko as well. That was never pretense. You were both far better friends to me than I was capable of being for you. The ending was inevitable, I think, like the ending to Aesop's tale of a farmer and a viper. But I am sorry for it."

[una_persson]

She looked away, so that he wouldn't see the emotion that passed over her face—anger, regret, a kind of grief. She felt sorry for him—really, genuinely sorry, though that didn't diminish the awareness that even the most monstrous people had their human sides. And Belloq, plainly, was no exception.

"Go home, Rene," she said wearily. "Go by way of the alley behind, and keep to the shadows. You should be safe that way."

[archeologue]

He said nothing. There was nothing left to say. But quietly took his leave, slinking into the shadows alone.