Work Text:
Gunfire ripped through the air of the Fort, shotguns and rifles and the rat-tat-tat of machineguns mixing with the impassioned yells of the Legionnaires who mounted their desperate defense in the face of whatever force had come to strike them down. Siri could almost see them now, even here hidden away in the tent alongside the other slaves; their soulless eyes lost in a hail of gunfire, the wrath of something greater and more terrible than they could have imagined. Siri knew the feeling, the terror that filled her heart when the Legion had come for her village and turned her life to a living hell ever since.
Now it had come for them instead.
"Ms. Siri..." Melody's voice was weak as she shivered at Siri's side, her eyes downcast as the Legionnaires had taught her to do. "Are we going to be okay?"
"...of course we are." Siri shushed the child gently, stroking her hair even as she lied through grit teeth. She knew better by now than to hope. Than to believe. Violence was the way of the wasteland, be it by the hands of the Legion or the collars they placed around their slaves' necks. Anyone, or rather anything that could strike fear into the heart of the Legion was something indescribable. Inhuman. And it would soon have its way with them, just as the Legion had.
That was just how life worked.
The gunfire began to die down, bit by bit. With every scream, every crack of a rifle, every dynamite blast that sent the earth shaking and Melody's head deeper into Siri's shoulder. The Legion faded. It faltered. And with one last shot somewhere beyond sight, it died. All that was left was the quiet and the darkness inside the tent, the murmured whispers of the slaves passing to and fro as footsteps approached over the packed dirt outside, and the flap of the tent was pulled open.
Siri shielded Melody as the light of day poured into the dark, the silhouette of a stranger standing in the doorway. It wore midnight black armor, beneath a dusty leather coat worn away by the fires of hell. It's head was covered, it's helmet sealing death within. The red eyes of a demon stared down, meeting Siri's as she stared up in defiance, meeting the eyes of the Legion's hellish destroyer head on.
And the demon simply reached out its hand towards them.
"...come on." The demon spoke with the voice of a woman as the sun glinted behind her and the sky stretched out in deepest, truest blue. "We're getting you out of here."