The meadow birds have found the bones of righteous men.

[futilecycle]

WHO | Sigma, Phillip Gray, and OPEN. Later Sigma, the Initiate, Phi, and others.
WHAT | Sigma makes his escape. The final confrontation of Sigma Klim.
WHEN | Day 6
WHERE | Whatever zone your character is in, outside of the barrier. Final area TBA.
WARNINGS / NOTES | Part 1 (Private confrontations) for now, Part 2 (Assassination Threat) to be added. Part 1 is OPEN. If you would like to be a part of the assassination, please see this plotting page for more details!

ONE

Sigma had been interrogated once before, in a fight for his life against a wickedly brilliant man far more clever than he. It was in that hour alone in a room with him that Sigma felt closer to the death than he had ever been since his arrival here. With Quintus no longer there to crack him open, the Peacekeepers who were left resorted to the only tactic they had been trained to understand. As Sigma peered into the dark reflective glass of a helmet, he thought he recognized his attacker, thought he had seen a person of that size and stature without the mask in Commander Shepard's army. He wonders if that is not the reason he is eventually set free with but a bruise across his face and shoulder and a warning to report to a Capitol Defense facility under penalty of death. They both supposed it made them even.

All of this was just buying him time, he knew. Sooner or later a drone he'd sabotaged would turn against a Capitol soldier who would live to tell the tale, and Sigma would fall asleep one night and wake up in an electric chair. Well, he would be of no more use to the Rebellion dead.

He finds himself making one last gamble, hesitating at the threshold between the last safe haven in the outer city and the unknown, a lone sniper making his rounds atop the building, their kind protecting more important cargo elsewhere. Sigma takes a deep breath, turns his back to the entrance, and watches himself die again and again in one thousand doomed futures. The journey to the front lights up his memory with a colorful array of death, and at last Sigma understands what he has done. Even if he'd had the disabler on him, the Capitol had stripped him of all his privileges over the traps, and a part of him wondered if he did not deserve to know how each of his lives ended. By the time the Gamemaker has made it to the battleground, his head is pounding with every heartbeat so heavily he can feel it in his eyes. Perhaps he has not eaten in weeks of grief and death in other worlds. Shepard's gun sits oppressively on his chest beneath his cloak, forcing him to breathe hard as he leans to rest against an alleyway wall.

Though he can barely take another step, he must go on. He must find a member of the Rebellion and seek asylum.

Comments

[voiceinthephone]

To say that Phillip made it this far with scratches and light wounds surprised even himself. His mission to save and "capture" survivors and the wounded fueled him to endure days of the onslaught. Phone Guy was a resilient man, five years at Freddy's, one year in Panem, this war and he still kept going until every person he could help was on their way out of the trap-infested Capitol. It got so dangerous that he now carried his skittish pets in his supply bag before leaving them at a Rebel location, the traps were intensifying in number and with a near capture, the former guard considered retreating for the day.

That is, until he spotted Dr. Sigma Klim. For that second, Phil saw red: he knew what the man had done to not just Jeremy and Luna, everyone. Without the Portal crisis to hinder the confrontation, Gray took off sprinting towards the haggard doctor. What happened next was purely fueled by rage: he punched Sigma squarely in the face.

"What the hell?!" He finally screamed out months of frustration, before muttering under his breath, pinning the man against the wall. "What the hell are you doing out here?! It's dangerous!" And yet he still cared enough to keep the old man safe

[futilecycle]

Sigma turns his head at the shout and in the next instant pain explodes across his sight. The old man staggers and slides down the wall before Phil catches him, and Sigma presses his hands over his face to hide involuntary tears. His brain rattles in his head, blood like gasoline burning up his nerves, but he can still place the voice to a face. He hisses in pain, rubbing his cybernetic eye to search for signs of cracking. It seemed to be okay - Sigma wonders if it wouldn't have done Phillip more damage if he'd hit it, and in spite of being assaulted, he thought he considered him a friend.

"Ughhhhhh," is all he can muster for awhile, teeth clenched. He'd have to give a lecture on the importance of not punching people with cluster headaches, but it seemed that horse has already left the barn. After he'd suppressed the urge to vomit, he remembers how to speak and starts figuring out what part of him deserved that. "What was that for..?" Sigma finally pulls his gloved hands away and stares at Phillip through his swollen organic eye. "...I mean that. Give me a chance to explain..." The fact that this place was dangerous was so obvious that he didn't find the need to comment on it.

[voiceinthephone]

"For Jeremy and Luna, don't try to deny it," Phil huffed almost like a petulant child caught doing something wrong. But he's standing his ground and, in his own way, tend to Sigma's already existing wounds. "But go ahead, what's really going on and why are you out here if you're a Gamemaker?"

Phil was angry and frustrated but he still cared about Sigma as he would an old man who trusted him back. "Because I know for a fact that you would lay your head down and let these people cut it off for family." He still remembered that shared dream, that moment that cemented Phone Guy's trust in the man with infinite lives. So much so that he raises his gun and keeps an eye out for any attackers in their midst.