Page 125 of Promises in the Dark

“So,” she summed up, “we’re going in blind again.”

I nodded solemnly. Damn right we were. Another leap of faith, straight into the fire.

Red gave me a small smile of solidarity.

Pyro let out a low whistle.

“Well,” he said with a grin, “at least it’ll be fun.”

Oh boy, it would be.

“And remember,” I added as an afterthought, “if we find out anything concrete about Captain’s involvement... we take care of it ourselves.”

With any luck, we might just make it out alive.

Pyro shot me a silent thumbs-up behind Viper’s back; Raven followed close behind him like a shadow. Viper lingered for a moment, his gaze flicking between me and Red before he sauntered off after them.

I watched Red, utterly wrecked after her ex kicked the bucket, as she tried to slip away. The sight of her, broken and lost, pissed me off as much as it tore at me. I stepped in her path, grabbing her arm.

“Red, wait,” I called out, catching up to her. “Are you okay?” I asked, knowing it was a stupid fucking question.

She didn’t quite answer, just gave me this hollow, empty look that went straight through me. It made my blood boil how shattered she looked over that piece of shit.

“I’ll give you some space,” I offered, thinking I was doing the right thing. “You clearly need some time to process this.”

Big mistake.

She whipped around, her eyes flashing with emotion.

"I didn’taskyou to give me space."

I blinked, taken aback. “I thought that’s what you wanted,” I replied defensively.

She shook her head, a bitter edge creeping into her speech. “You never ask what I want, Rogue,” she accused. “You just assume.”

Fair point. Maybe I’ve made an assumption there. But come on, it wasn’t like she was exactly radiating ‘talk to me’ vibes.

“Why the hell should I?” I said aloud. “You’re falling apart over a man who did nothing but fuck up your life.”

Red’s gaze softened, just a little, but it didn’t make her words any easier to swallow. “I wanted to save him,” she insisted, her voice breaking into a sob. “I wanted to believe there was something worth saving.”

My grip on my temper began to slip. “He didn’t fucking deserve to be saved,” I argued.

“You don’t get to decide who lives or dies,” she countered, her voice fierce, like she still believed in that naive bullshit.

I sneered and my anger flared up another notch. “Neither do you, sweetheart,” I retorted, the words harsh but true.

She stared at me, hurt and anger warring in her eyes. In that moment, I realized I’d overstepped my bounds. But I couldn’t surrender now. Not when I believed I was right.

“You can’t save everyone, Red,” I added, trying to get through to her. “Some people are just—”

She cut me off, her shoulders slumping, a hint of sadness in her eyes. “You’re right,” she conceded. “But I don’t have the luxury of giving up. I have to try, because if I don’t, then what the hell is the point of any of this?”

I rolled my eyes at her idealism. “Sometimes, you have to let go,” I told her, knowing it was a lost cause. “You can’t keep carrying the weight of every dead soldier. It will break you.”

But she just looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language.

“I’d rather be broken than feel nothing,” she whispered, her eyes welling up with tears of rage.

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