Work Text:
Dottore and Capitano war thing
Loud. There were the sounds of screams and melee weapons all around. Natlan was at war, and currently trying to win against the Abyss.
The Captain, nigh all righteous, had stayed to help civilians and fight back the Abyss. What most didn’t know, is that The Doctor was sent as a backup Harbinger for obtaining the Gnosis, with no one aware that a war was about to start.
The sky was eerily dark, and the screams wouldn’t stop. Hundreds were already dead, some areas were lethal, and Natlanese citizens were hiding in the Children of Echos to escape Natlan as a last resort. Capitano, Dottore, and a good chunk of civilians were taking shelter in an almost dead land between the People of the Springs and the Scions of the Canopy. Fatui agents had been hauling in dying people to Dottore as he flipped between a dozen or so more critically injured and trying to fix the comms system.
Capitano rushed back in, carrying a saurian and a small child. Dottore was patching up a gushing torso wound on a random terrified person. “Captain, I can’t help a saurian. I’m barely a doctor, let alone a vet.”
Capitano gently laid them both down, watching as the child clung to her saurian companion, sobbing over her pet dying and her right arm being lopped off at the elbow. “My apologies, Doctor, I figured you would be able to help here.” That sarcastic voice that bled through enough that even Dottore understood it…
Dottore pressed more gauze to the person’s torso, gesturing for a random shaking citizen to come closer. “Apply pressure. Don’t stop if a rib snaps. A rib can heal, you can’t easily bring someone back from the dead in one piece.” They nodded, pressing down hard and holding the gauze in place. He shifted to the little girl, taking her arm. She was looking up at Dottore in fear, not knowing what would happen, both in terms of what Dottore would do and what would happen after all this.
“Captain, get me a tourniquet, a large patch of gauze, and a roll of bandages.” Capitano nodded with a huff, going through the resources and getting what was asked. He passed it all back over, sitting down and holding the girl’s hand while Dottore tied on the tourniquet and tightened it with the windlass rod. The child cried and sobbed, making Dottore grimace. “I never like working with unwilling children, they scream so much…”
Capitano started trying to get her attention and distract her, “Hey… hey, hey, it’ll be okay. What’s your name?”
The girl took in shaky breaths, “A-Atzi…”
“Atzi? That’s a very pretty name. Is that your pet?”
“Uh huh… that’s my saurian, Mizu. He’s a good boy…” Capitano looked at the saurian, very obviously an Iktomisaur, before looking back to Atzi. “He’s a very cute Koholasaur.”
That finally got her to smile through the tears, “nnnooooo, he’s an Iktomisaur..!” “Hm… Yumkasaur?” Atzi giggled, finally distracted enough to not feel Dottore dealing with her arm. “No! He’s an Iktomisaur!”
“…he looks like a Tatankasaur. Are you suuuure he’s an Iktomisaur?”
“Yeah, I’m sure!” Atzi gave him a little smile, one of her teeth missing.
Dottore managed to stop the bleeding for the most part, “what’s the time?” Capitano looked up from Atzi, giggling through her tears, to get the time. “Ah… 19:36.” “Thank you.” He wrote that on the tourniquet in sharpie.
Atzi tilted her head, “why do you need the year..?” Capitano focused back on her, “that’s not the year, that’s our special code way of saying the time.” Even though his eyes weren’t visible, Capitano gave a ‘wink’ by tilting his head inwards. She looked back at Dottore, who wasn’t paying attention to the conversation at all.
He rolled up her sleeve, preparing a small vial of liquid. “Hey, kid, how old are you?” She moved, grimacing at the pain. “I just turned seven two months ago…” “2ml and hoping for the best. Captain, keep her attention.” Capitano wasn’t all the best with children, but he could keep attention.
“Hey. When Dottore here is done and helps you get better, you’re gonna stay here and be his little helper.” Dottore looked up from where he now had a syringe above her arm, giving him a ‘cut it out’ motion.
Capitano looked up, before looking back down. “On second thought, maybe you should go make sure everyone in here is doing oka-“ “Ow!!”
Atzi immediately pulled back, thankfully just after Dottore injected her with two milliliters of morphine. He put a little bandaid over it, “go drink water.” “But what about Mizu-?” “Water. Now.”
She pouted before getting up, trying to find water. Capitano returned to his usual demeanor, “Doctor, you could be nicer to the children.” Dottore cleaned up the blood before changing gloves and mask, “and you could do with losing a bit of empathy. Now, go back, do not bring me saurians, and if your sympathetic little heart allows for it; try to bring back children to other medics.” Capitano sighed, before grabbing his sword and heading back out.
The war raged on, and it wasn’t looking good.
Dottore had to pack up and move twice, since both the People of the Springs and the Scions of the Canopy had been taken over by the Abyss. Atzi had been reunited with her parents, and some other citizens had been dropped off.
Currently, Dottore was camping out by the stadium, now trying to get ahold of the Fatui. He had been trying to get ahold of the Zapolyarny Palace using an old and corroded comms device.
Capitano came in, took one look, and sighed. “What’s the issue this time?” Dottore smacked the side of the device, groaning in disappointment. “The batteries are too old and corroded by battery acid, we have nothing to power this thing. All of our Electro users are either stationed elsewhere or are currently fighting, meaning we have absolutely nothing.”
Capitano stared at the device. He wasn’t as good with the tech as Dottore was, but he could think quick on his feet. “…try the battery packs from the dune buggies.” Dottore turned to snap, “Captain, that is the worst plan I’ve ever heard in my life!” But, he thought about it. “And… it might just work. Go get a battery pack, only one.” Capitano gave a quick nod, heading out to grab the battery pack from their buggy.
It took about five minutes, then Capitano returned with the battery pack. Dottore grabbed it, and started attaching wires with electrical tape. “If this works, it’ll be the stupidest thing we’ve ever tried.” Capitano held the wires in place when Dottore gestured, “Indeed. Either this thing catches fire and Columbina is the new First, or this actually works and we get ahold of Lord Pierro.”
Dottore got everything taped up, and both Harbingers braced for impact as Dottore hit the power button. It didn’t explode or catch fire, surprisingly, but instead, the communicator crackled to life. Pierro’s pixelated voice was on the other line, “-llo? -ttore and Ca- -no, can you h- e- e- a- ar me?” Capitano let out a sigh of relief, and Dottore started chuckling to himself, thankful that the communicator turned back on. “We hear you in bits, Lord Pierro!” Dottore had to set the device down in his hand as it started to warm his hand through his stained gloves.
“Goo- d. We need o- en to pull ba- zhnaya.” Dottore looked at Capitano, who shrugged. Capitano looked back to the device, “Lord Pierro, you’re cutting out. Please repeat yourself.” “Our men ne- -ll back to Snezhn- Too dangero-“ Capitano whispered back to Dottore, “I think he’s saying to pull the troops back?” “Yeah, that sounds about right. Lord Pierro, we’re staying in Natlan. The war is only getting worse.” “I kn- t’s why we need to- ve our agents’ li- prioritize them-“
Dottore groaned, stepping back to let Capitano have a whirl at it since he had more patience. “Lord Pierro, we will give them a choice to leave, but we want them to stay here and help the Natlanese people. Hundreds are dead, and hundreds more are dying.” There was silence, then they both heard Pierro’s sigh that he let out when he gave in to something. “-ine, do what you thi- -s best. Prioritize- -roops. Okay?” “Understood.” After that, the communications device fizzled out, too hot to function. Dottore sat down on one of the portable beds, sighing in annoyance.
“If the Archon doesn’t do something soon, we’ll need to find her gnosis and do something ourselves.”
“Agreed.”