The last twenty-four hours had gotten away from him.

Seeing Vash in the state that he was in when he was taken and spending time trying to gather intel of where they were taking Keler: Scheria. They had a course and while Gunner didn’t have a ship he knew that handling this on his own wasn’t exactly the best course of action. Not that he believed heading to the Sparrowhawk was the most intelligent decision he was going to make either. Almost a day. A day of withholding information from Raena Tenau and a crew that adored the man. He knew that he’d shouted his name over the comm before he’d fired it out of his hand.

Precautions had been taken. Reaching out cautiously for Charley to meet him down at the docks because he knew Raena had a soft-spot for him. Much more than she would have had for him. A stranger and the man who had betrayed Vash.

Gunner felt like he was going to be lucky to get out of this entire mess alive. Or unharmed. But he didn’t count that very high with how things had ended with Vash as he stepped onto the docks, losing Major in the crowd of people once again after their small adventure as he started seeking out Raena with a slump of his shoulders rather than the overly prideful ‘Peacekeeper’ that he usually kept up. There was nothing prideful about the current situation as he started a bigger stride the moment he saw the woman. “Raena Tenau?” Gunner found his voice somewhere, he thought he lost it for a moment. “I’m here to talk about Vash.”

The woman in question was a mess. Maybe not literally, not visible on the outside. Raena wasn’t one to cry in public or let a single crack show. But underneath that calm facade was a bomb waiting to go off. Immediately after hearing the message, she’d rounded up the crew like he’d told her to do, checking in to make sure everyone else was accounted for, either in their private hangar, on the ship, or somewhere safe and out of sight. They couldn’t get anyone else, she wouldn’t allow it - not when she’d already failed to protect the person who meant the absolute most to her.

As soon as that was done, Rae had gotten to work on retracing Vash’s steps to the best of her ability. Picking apart the message, trying to understand what exactly happened to him. It wasn’t difficult when there were a ton of witnesses to the shocking chase through Lowtown, and he’d left her one solid clue - a name called out in between heaving breaths and the crash of footsteps. Gunner. Gunner is a fucking– What? He didn’t finish the sentence. There was another thing Vash had started to tell her at the end, but the connection was abruptly terminated. When she found his broken commlink, he wasn’t there.

He was gone, and Raena Tenau was devastated. But she couldn’t let that show. She couldn’t give up or break down, even if she felt sick to her stomach as she marched through the streets of Terminus on a silent warpath. On her way to meet fucking Gunner. She’d tried to reach him through the private link she’d asked for when she thought Charley was having memory problems again, but her requests had gone ignored until now. Until a few hours ago, and he’d wanted to meet at the docks - in a public space, where she might hesitate to kill him on the spot. But that was a slim chance.

There weren’t many people out when she spotted him at the end of the pier - and that was a good thing, because it gave her a clear shot. Gunner was almost a head taller than her, even when he hunched over in shame, but size and weight meant nothing. Lips pressed into a thin, grim line, Rae walked faster toward him, her hand outstretched long before he could even have a chance at drawing any weapon.

“You motherfucking piece of shit!” she shouted, flinging him backwards into the metal railing from several yards away. Her fingers twitched and curled subtly, and it was like several bands of pressure were constricting around his arms, pinning them to his sides so he was immobilized. She moved in, a predator narrowing in on her prey, pushing his back harder into the rails. Her voice ice cold as she loomed over him, “Where the hell is he? Where’s Vash? What the fuck did you do?”

Gunner didn’t really have time to react or brace himself, he expected it nevertheless. He expected anything that was someone just lashing out in anger when it came to something like this. The sudden silence, the disappearance. He wasn’t going to try to fight back but if it meant that he died...maybe he would have spoken up a little bit. Some sort of light went off in his head and he straightened his back when she started walking towards him.

Being thrown back and hitting the metal railing had taken the breath right out of his lungs with no time to recover before his arms were pinned to his sides. “I gave him to Ambrose Goodhope,” Gunner didn’t waste no time in laying everything out when Rae had moved closer to him. “I didn’t know. I can give you names. Everyone who was involved, I can lead you to him. I got the flight plans.”

If there was anything that he could do to make this better than it was. Gunner couldn’t really say he didn’t mean to do it. In the moment, no one held a gun to his head. No one told him it was Vash or him. The intention was always getting Vash but the outcome wasn’t what he was told it was going to be.

It wasn’t at all surprising to hear that Ambrose was involved, yet hearing his name made Rae’s blood run cold, color draining from her face. They had outrun the pompous Korso lapdog for months - from fake dinners, from the race - but somehow, all of that had been undone by one stupid bootlicking asshole. Someone she and Vash had both said maybe wasn’t as bad as the rest of his badge-wearing stooges, but they’d been so wrong. The only thing that gave Rae a sliver of hope was the way Gunner said he could lead her to him - meaning Vash was still alive. Captured, but not executed on the spot - which was her worst fear.

If the Peacekeeper hadn’t started talking, she would’ve crushed his windpipe without another thought - still wanted to, even as the words were squeezed out of him, but she stayed her hand. Lucky for him, she was a pragmatist, and if Gunner actually had information and wasn’t just telling lies to save his own hide from her wrath, she could wait to hear it first. “Talk faster. And I can tell if you’re lying,” she hissed, the hand controlling the telekinetic grip on his arms balling into a fist while she poked him in the forehead with the index finger of her other hand. “So if I get one whiff of bullshit coming from you, I will turn your insides to liquid.” She pulled her fingers back to snap them in his ear.

And truthfully, the threat she’d made wasn’t something she’d actually done before - she wasn’t a psychotic murderer who got kicks from hurting people. But she was a telepath and could extract the information from him if he wasn’t cooperative. The process had been one of the uglier things she’d done in the War, in the service of the ADF, on loan to the AIA - intelligence extraction. Forcefully digging through thoughts and memories, sometimes leaving the subject mentally drained or damaged. Raena never wanted to do it again, proved she didn’t have the stomach for it, and avoided getting drafted into a covert unit. But for Vash? There were no limits on what she would do to save him.

Gunner flinched when Rae snapped her fingers as he tried to just keep...from panicking at the moment. This was never his intention not that he knew what his intention was. Not getting Vash involved in any of this. Wanting to get information that Ambrose promised that he had about the missing years of his life. What he hadn’t intended was to see Vash on his knees, bleeding from his leg. He might have gotten into an argument with the man but it was never his intention to have him end up like that.

“Ship docs say Scheria. I got the information from the dock master, they didn’t have any information on how many people on board but it’s a ship called the Dauntless.” Gunner maintained eye contact despite the fact that he wanted to look as he felt, utterly defeated in the way this had unfolded in front of him. “Rae, I didn’t know that would happen. You have to believe me. I’d never sell Vash out like that.”

Another chill shot through her as Gunner named the ship - an old friend had been the previous captain running things, but last she’d known, he’d given up the post and retired to who knew where. No help to be found there. Rae had never been aboard it, but she’d seen it in port before, and knew it was the flagship of Thedes-Korso’s private military company. “Fuck.” They’d be outgunned, outmanned, overpowered - in way over their heads. The Sparrowhawk was a racer, not a warship. Going head to head would be impossible. But they’d be able to easily catch up with them before they arrived at Scheria, and Vash landed in the clutches of Korso.

As her mind started running through possibilities of how to get through this, to get him back, she heard Gunner’s pathetic sniveling and her fury and pulse spiked again. “You don’t get to say that.” Rae pulled him away from the rail, but instead of letting him go, she lifted him into the air with her invisible grip along the collar of his shirt, dragging him up inch by inch until his feet were no longer touching the metal grating. “You did sell him out! You can’t take that back!” Part of her wanted to know why - but it was so small and so quickly snuffed out by her anguish at losing Vash, at how he was just some pawn Gunner thought he could toss away to Ambrose Goodhope.

“I don’t have to believe you. I don’t give a fuck,” Raena snarled, fist tightening as she squeezed the muscles around his throat, constricting his airflow while Gunner dangled helplessly. She could snap his neck, kill him right now, and it wouldn’t matter. Not to her. Not when he had cost her everything. There was nothing left to lose.

"Rae," came a voice behind her. Stern. Thick. Intentional. "Stop. Now. Don't make me stop you." The threat wasn't empty. Charley stood behind her, his weapon raised and trained with a sharp eye on her shoulder. He wouldn't kill her, but he would make damn sure she let go of his partner.

There was something different about him today; the smile was gone, faded out of his eyes, leaving behind something dark and tired. He wasn't interested in whatever this was, whatever problem Gunner was causing. He trusted Gunner to get into more scrapes than he could count, and most of the time could get himself back out of them. If Gunner had called Charley here, told him where to meet them, he'd known there was a possibility of something like this, something he couldn't escape alone. Charley did not like being used, but he wasn't going to let anyone kill a Peacekeeper on his watch, not even a friend like Rae.

"Put him down and put your hands up, I'm not going to tell you twice," he said, stepping forward, frowning.

Rae had clocked Charley’s approach in her periphery, but she didn’t expect him to sound like that - almost like the man he’d been a few years ago - or to intervene by drawing his gun on her. If she was fast enough, she might be able to get them both, turn and throw Gunner at Charley - but she didn’t want to hurt her neighbor. Her friend. This had nothing to do with him...did it? Vash had only mentioned Gunner, and T-Sec, but Charley was his partner - and Charley was supposed to be Vash’s friend, too. How could he let this happen? To him, to her?

Her hands trembled with restrained rage and sorrow. She could still kill Gunner, much faster than Charley could pull the trigger. But what would that gain her? Even if she managed to dodge the following blaster bolt, disable the other man, and get away - she’d have law enforcement up her ass, and she would have an even harder time trying to rescue Vash. She didn’t want Gunner’s help, but she might need it - and that was more important than avenging Vash. For now.

“Fine.” She put Gunner down - hard, slamming him into the flooring so that his body made a resounding thump that carried across the docks and would leave more than a few marks. Her hands went up after that, as she turned around to face Charley, no longer the picture of composure, but angry and frayed and barely held together. “Did you know about this? What he and thirty T-Sec goons did to Vash?” Because if he knew, then she wasn’t going to regret turning on him, too. Her hands were up, but she didn’t need to use them to throw both officers over the side of the docks. She didn’t want to, but she would - if Charley didn’t listen. Her accusatory tone turned pleading, “They took him and sent him off to a crime lord. He’s going to be tortured and killed. I’m going to lose the love of my life. Don’t you understand?”

From the moment Gunner lifted off the ground, the entire world seemed further away that it ever did before. He’d put his hands to his throat as if trying to pry the invisible force off his neck as he struggled to breath. Gunner had barely registered what Rae was saying, practically didn’t even notice that Charley was there. He knew that whatever Rae was doing was warranted. The only reason he needed some form of backup was simply because he didn’t know the woman well enough to know if she would kill him. He knew her by reputation only.

Gunner dropped to the floor, gasping for breath as he looked up at Charley and knew that he had messed up in that department of asking Charley to come if only because he was Rae’s friend. “No...he didn’t know. He wasn’t involved.” Gunner interrupted, finally finding his voice after the time it had taken to catch his breath. He pushed himself to his feet, not moving from where he was standing and certainly not moving to hide behind Charley like he wanted to. It wouldn’t win him any points. If there were any to get right now. “I had no idea that was going to happen, I didn’t know who he was.”

He certainly didn’t know who the woman was who shot him in the leg but he had an idea that she was no good from what he’d seen already.

Charley studied Rae, not taking his eyes off her. He knew she was more than just a simple woman, and he didn't plan on letting her surprise him if he could help it. But he lowered his weapon from where it was trained on her shoulder, just enough to show a sign of trust. He'd never seen her like this, visibly upset, visibly shaken. The story must be true. If Vash was taken, he wasn't headed to a good place. Charley knew enough about the things Vash did and that he let slide to know the small infractions piled up, and Vash must have pissed someone off. The space race, going dark, he'd noticed. For the time being, Charley's eyes were clear and sharp, like they'd been years ago.

He turned his weapon on Gunner. "Tell her what she needs to know," he said, "I won't kill you, but I will make sure it hurts if you lie or withhold information. What did you do?"

The sudden turnaround was surprising to Rae, but no less appreciated. Charley had always been one of the good ones in her eyes, and she was relieved to see that she hadn’t been wrong about him, too. Lucky for Gunner that he’d shown up, because Charley’s support was knocking down the jagged edges of her anger. Allowing her to think and act more clearly. The longer she stood here, talking with them, the further Vash was slipping out of reach. She shot Charley a quick sideways look of gratitude, then turned back to Gunner. Rae slowly lowered her hand - in a non-threatening way - and held it out. “Give me the flight plans. All the information you have. Everyone who was there. Vash...isn’t perfect, but he never did anything to deserve the kind of hell you’ve sent him to. You’re lucky I don’t do worse to you.”

The sudden turnaround felt like the final nail in his coffin. Gunner motioned to Charley that he was going to reach into his pocket before doing so, pulling out the drive he was carrying the information on and dropping it into Rae’s hand. “That's everything I could get ahold of. Flight plans and what little information they had on the cargo but they didn't have a full crew list.” Not that they were willing to give. Gunner imagined there were scarier men in the universe than him. “I’d deserve it. Vash doesn't...they have almost a day’s lead on you. But they probably won't anticipate anyone coming after them.”

Charley watched carefully, before holstering his blaster, now that the information had been delivered. He kept his eyes on the drive, feeling the sting of something so crucial on something so small. His gaze lingered for a moment longer before turning to Gunner. "Who is it? What do they want? What did they tell you?" he asked, "Are you close to them – if you accompanied Rae, would you be able to get closer to where Vash is, or did they burn you once they had him?"

He hesitated, looking at Rae. "Do you have a way to read that here, now? To confirm that it is what he says it is?" He wasn't doubting Gunner, but the man in front of him was scared, flighty, and in a very serious spot. He wasn't Gunner, he was an informant, and needed to be treated as such in this moment. Later, when time wasn't ticking down, Charley would rectify the relationship, but his rapport with his partner wasn't the most important thing right now.

Raena’s fingers curled around the drive, then slipped it inside of a secure pocket lining her jacket. This was the key to getting Vash home. She looked up at Charley, shaking her head. “I don’t. And I can’t stay long. If he’s right, I’m running out of time. I have to get the ship ready for flight, and make sure my crew is alright, too. But I have friends who can use this as a starting point for gathering more intel.” People she could count on, and were counting on her now to get their rescue mission started. She didn’t want to fool herself into thinking it would be easy, but at least there was a glimmer of hope in that drive’s data.

“Thank you, Charley. Sorry you got dragged into this, but maybe you ought to know what your partner’s up to,” Rae sighed, and she almost wanted to apologize for thinking he might have played a part in any of it - but it was hard to know who she could actually trust anymore. Turning to leave, she shot one more dark look over at Gunner, but only had words for his partner. “Do what you have to with him. He’s a traitor and a sell out. I don’t know what he was promised, but Korso’s lackey bought his badge. He’s not worthy of it or you.” While she didn’t know any of the circumstances behind it, she didn’t trust Gunner an inch, and didn’t want someone like Charley to get hurt by him, too. He deserved better, in so many ways.

Rae reached out to touch his arm in a silent goodbye, and started to walk away. But before she did, she gave Gunner one more telekinetic smack upside his head, and disappeared into the crowd of workers on the docks.