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Despite the 'wrath-of-God' look on her face, Giselle Petrova was happy to be alive. Whether she had intended to or not, she had succeeded in finding the cure, and the control she had been seeking had been put into her own hands with nothing more than a twist in her chest. And she had power, now. More than before, more than she had ever had, even when she was undead. She was back, and, though it was trite to say it, better than ever. However, with the solving of one problem, another had materialized, and it was up to her to solve it.

Again.

"Whatever you did," Giselle said flatly, "suggests you don't know what you did." A click-click-click as her nails tapped impatiently against the top of the desk Elke was sitting on.

"This would be alarming, as it would mean you find nothing wrong with the fact you went up to an unstable undead monster and patted them on the head." She looked up at Elke with the concentrated glare beam that she saved for when things were Important. "Do you know what could have happened to you? I don't care what that thing looked like, it was not me. I was not in control of my actions, and you were very nearly killed. What would I have sent you away for if you just ended up dying anyway? Nothing! We would both be dead for nothing! We would both have failed, Elke April Arma. And failure is not an option, do you understand?"

She paused in her tirade to take a deep breath, and, just to make sure she was being perfectly clear, added "We do not pat zombies on the head."

"And how much do you think I'd be hurting if I knew it was my fault you were dead?" Giselle demanded. "If I had to watch my body eat you of its own accord? Because I can tell you without a doubt in my mind, that it would have reassured me a damn sight more to know that you were safe rather than to have my head patted."

Her glare beam moved to Elke's kicking legs, and she added "I need to know that you understand this is serious, Elke. This isn't like not doing your homework, though that is still serious too," she added quickly, so Elke couldn't use it if they got out of their situation alive enough to have another tutoring session again. "People have made sacrifices for you. For you, Elke. You do not let them down by making silly mistakes. This isn't a game, at least not to us it isn't, and just because we're senshi," her voice caught, being one of the 'damn silly sailor senshi' was still new to her, "Doesn't mean we're invincible. Now, do you understand?"

Giselle relented as Elke admitted Avery was dead. She had never liked Elke's boyfriend. He was a distraction from her lessons, and she had judged him to be a dumb jock who couldn't help but spoil his cute girlfriend without even bothering to meet him. She had never liked him, but Elke had been in mad no-I-will-not-shut-up love with him, and if she had seen him as an undead, she knew better than to push the lesson.

She paused as Elke related what Sue said, then finally said "That wasn't you."

"It's like when I nearly attacked you. Do you think that was me, Elke? Was it me, or was it whatever I had become? I would have had Hero shoot me to stop myself, but who was there to stop you? We couldn't help ourselves when we attacked."

Thinking they were guilty for things that were out or their control was useless. All they could do was chalk it up to circumstance and move on.

And now she was crying.

Giselle was not good at the touchy-feely stuff. Her family had not raised her to be good at touchy-feely stuff, they had raised her to win and be able to tell others about famous dead people. Nowhere in those two categories did 'comforting a crying peer' fall, but at least Giselle knew it was coming, because after all their lessons together, it was easy enough to see the signs.

"Oh, now come-" Too late. Elke was going off like a fountain.

"It's okay." she said, completely ineffectually. Rather hesitantly, she patted Elke's back, as if her hand would burn if she touched it too long. She bit her lip, looking for another way to get Elke to stop.

"You're going to get the desk wet." she pointed out.

It wasn't the most reassuring argument, but it was certainly an argument that Giselle Petrova would use. The fact that she had used it was what was unfortunate.

"Show me your arm again." Giselle demanded. Elke hadn't been quick enough.

She was briefly distracted by the question about Sebastién, because, unlike Avery, Sebastién was a decent sort of person who knew something about history, and she ahd met him twice before. Unfortunately, one of those times he had been undead, so he wasn't the most cheerful subject to talk about. "Dead." she said simply, but quiclky added, "He's okay though. He helped me find my hair tie." And when it came to that, Giselle was still in just her nightdress, her dirty hair pulled back best she could manage. She prefered being Libra, at least that involved a clean outfit.

But al that was a distraction, and she snapped back into focus, demanding "Show me your arm," again.

Giselle didn't like saying things she wasn't sure of for a fact. However, she convinced herself that historical evidence suggested he was all right, which was practically a fact, and said "Nearly positive." Sebastién was capable, if not a bit romantic. He'd be able to get on fine, even if he was undead. Maybe not if he had run into the living, but he wouldn't do that, none of the living were French enough for him to want to.

She stared at her hand, but the list wasn't what caught her attention so much as the bruise. The list was a silly thing, and like many silly things, she wouldn't put it past Elke to do it. The bruise was hand shaped, which suggested it had been inflicted, rather than accidental. Considering that Elke had just patted a zombie on the head, it wasn't surprising, but it bothered Giselle. It had been her job to protect Elke, and that mark was too much like failure, or at least mediocrity. Giselle was never mediocre. Who did other people think they were, bruising her arm?

"Who hurt you?" she asked aloud.

Giselle's expression hardened. She had never liked Avery, and undead or not, she wouldn't forgive him for hurting Elke. If she could resist (well, maybe not twice, but the second time didn't count), then so could he. She didn't even care about Elke as much as he was supposed to, she was her history tutor. He was her boyfriend, and Giselle didn't know much about relationships, but she knew that the decent ones didn't involve bruises.

"I'm sorry," she said, but she didn't know what else to add. She was rubbish at this, how was she supposed to cheer Elke up about something she barely understood? She had never been in a relationship in her life, the last time a boy had confessed to her was years ago, and the closest she had been since was Andeon's repeated requests to play Petrova in My Pants, which were more of a nuisance than an emotional rollercoaster.

She could have made a joke. She could have said it would be all right, or at least offered Elke a hug.

Instead, she just sat next to her and waited for her to stop, because she was Giselle Petrova, and Giselle Petrova was terrible at the messy things in life.