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 Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 3:59 pm
It was abnormal for her to be so abrupt in her messages, not that they were of any great frequency, the nega subspace and delivery of energy made them more than able to keep in 'touch' without needing to resort to cell phones, texting or the like.
His arrival was prompt, concealed in shadows, arriving close enough and concealed enough that he could cut the last distance to her door out of uniform and, hopefully unquestioned.
A quick knock, stopped just short of turning into 'shave and a hair cut' out of some ridiculous impulse and he stuffed his hands into his pockets. The pockets lasted only a moment before he shoved ineffectually at the bangs that fell perpetually in his face, they fell back almost immediately.
There was a growing sense of dread coiling in the back of his mind, but he couldn't place why, there was just something -wrong-, just an instinct and nothing more.
"It's me...." he called through the door the moment he heard sound within.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:49 pm
Kaia was at the door in an instant, though once she swung it open to reveal the dimly lit living room it was a wonder she was walking at all - let alone so quickly.
"Thank the stars you're finally here," she breathed out hoarsely, though she didn't stand there long enough to hug him or cling, she just waved him in and flopped rather gracelessly onto the couch. All of that was rather uncharacteristic of the proper, mindful young adult. Something was clearly wrong and if her mood didn't show it, her body definitely did.
There were bandages and packs of ice spread out on the table in front of her, once used as a miniature hospital for Khal but now.. obviously used for herself. She reached out and picked up one of the ice packs, then twisted with a grimace until she could pin it between her shoulder blade and the couch were an angry bruise was forming around a fiery red abrasion.
Her eyes were stained from long-dried tears and deep dark circles were forming beneath them, making her look all the more exhausted. Teleporting was unnatural for senshi, even corrupt ones, and she'd done her fair share in the last few hours. She reached for another icepack then and pressed it against her forehead, covering a large bruise that spread out around a knot.
"Be quiet, Hematite is sleeping in the bedroom," as she spoke again, it was obvious the hoarseness was from crying. Then she just used her free hand, the one not holding up the second icepack, and patted the seat next to her. She seemed contained for now, if barely, and she was clearly trying to find a way to bring it up that wouldn't send her into another frenzy.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 4:58 pm
A flicker of sequential emotions through his eyes, pushed aside, all but a sort of cold anger that these days seemed ever present, even if it was directed at himself more often than not.
"Here... let me help." He said quietly and moved a ginger hand to help with the ice pack. It was no small step for him, he did not savor the touch of other people, and savored the touch of few.
She was one of a handful of exceptions to his rules, for better or for worse.
"What happened." He said his voice as taught as the strings of his violin, but any notes plucked from his voice at that moment would have been bitter indeed, dangerously close to a broken cord.
"Who did this...why?....Did they hurt him too?" He fumbled to remember Khaldun's rank...He thought it had last been Captain but... he couldn't say for sure.
He added as well "Are there any places you need bandaged, tell me...tell me what to do, I'll do it." His voice held that edge of trepidation, wounds were messy, he'd tried being messy...
He failed.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:11 pm
She opened her mouth to protest as he moved to take the icepack from her, but she finally gave up. She didn't have enough hands to hold as many as she needed to so she sat up and let him maneuver the one she'd been trying to hold in place by simply leaning back against it. That at least gave her enough freedom to pull her loose, long skirt back and apply yet another to her knee. It was already a ghastly purple so dark it was nearly black.
"No, no bandages. It's mostly just really painful bruises." Well, that and some really angry looking scrapes on her hands. She stared at her torn, red palms and then finally sighed and let go of both icepacks, turning her hands up and holding them out to him. "They just need to be wiped with alcohol and bandaged so they don't get infected." The only reason she was accepting help was because it was a distraction. Once she'd said that piece though, there was nothing to do but tell him the truth.
"He's fine, he wasn't involved. His problems are entirely unrelated." She glanced at the closed bedroom door where she'd sent the shocked and bewildered Captain to rest. Her concern for him had been the only thing to distract her from this mess. She sat like that, silently, staring at the bedroom door, for a long while. Then she glanced back at him, trying to look as apathetic as possible - a device she was using to hold back emotions.
"We were ambushed, Z," her hoarse voice almost broke over the words, "we thought we had the upper hand and we were ambushed." She swallowed hard against her sore throat and looked away. Her eyes stung like she might cry, but there was nothing else to squeeze out of her tear ducts. "They have her. They have a lot of them."
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:24 pm
He froze, the alcohol-med wipe hovering scant centimeters above her hands as he processed what she said.
"They have who... Who ambushed." He said his voice trembling very slightly, his hands shaking he tried so hard to keep them still he only made the tremors more finite.
"Details... please." He said carefully, a gentle press but a direct one as his heart climbed into his throat, beating there in a harsh staccato.
His cleansing of the abraded palms was sharp, precise as knife cuts, each sweep passing just over the edge of the previous, once over... swapped the pads, did it again and carefully inspected them for foreign substances.
"How many... how did they, names... powers, anything you have... " He didn't say what he wanted to, didn't say what he wanted most to hear, to be able to say. No promises, when he hadn't the details to keep them.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:41 pm
She grit her teeth as the alcohol swabs were wiped over her palms. The sharp stings were a distraction though, one she needed from her emotions and the pain that was slowly but surely sinking into her joints.
"Tanzanite," she said finally, softly, as she stared down at her hands and his work. "Uranophane, Wolframite, Dioptase, a pair of lieutenants I don't even know." It was surprisingly calm, if gently spoken, suggesting she'd already told the story before - maybe more than once.
"We were ambushed by the Blood Moon Court. Tanz sent me to get back up, but.." She stopped, trailing off, and drew a deep breath. Maybe it wasn't so easy to say it. "They were all gone when I got back. Only myself and Bisthmutite got away."
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 5:47 pm
Z was... methodical. He put the waste into the trash bins, dabbed just a touch of thick ointment into the worst of the scrapes to sit. He gave her a 'once over' just... to be utterly sure she was alright before he continued.
His shoulders were tight, his eyes almost like a dolls they were so blank and hard. "Did you recognize anyone who took them." He said quietly, he even placed ginger hands on her shoulders. "I'm sure you have told others but please... I need to know." He said it like ti was vital for her to describe the lint on their skirts if she could.
He had faith that she could as well, he knew how hard it was to remember from situations of duress, but with so much lost to her, who -better- to remember.
"If we know... we'll find them, and we'll be prepared." He said in tight and measured tones like velvet around a dagger.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 6:09 pm
She flexed her fingers once he was done with the cleaning and the application of the ointment, frowning at the feel of the thick paste and the tingling it set into her sore palms. She would have rather taken care of it all herself but trying to bandage your own hands when you needed to use them was, well, a little difficult.
"That's why I asked you to come," she said finally, done staring at her hands and the angry gashes in her palms. She looked up at him instead and the blankness she had been using to stave off her emotions was gone, replaced with that terrifying determination that surfaced whenever she was in a rough place. "I don't know anyone else that would do this with me, not the way it needs to be done. At least, no one else that's left." Uranophane was brilliant, methodical, more detached and objective than Zink. Tanzanite was more determined, more courageous, more accomplished than she would ever be. Of course it made sense to take those two, of course.
"Our target was Requiem, she showed up. She also brought Ares and Gunn, who we expected, and had thought we could outnumber." That's when she shook her head, her dreads were still grimy and unwashed, carrying more of the broken bits of asphalt that had stained her cheeks and palms. "There were so many of them, Z. First one wave, then another, they planned it. They were one step ahead." The stinging in her palms was the only thing that kept her from forming fists and the pain all over her body was the only thing that kept her rooted to the couch instead of up pacing.
"I was mostly distracted by a redheaded tart. She knew kick boxing but didn't use her powers so I have no idea who she was." She drew a deep breath then and let it out slowly, frowning. "Nemesis was there. Somewhere." That was quiet and more to herself, as if it was hard for her to see the senshi opposing her, even now after all they'd done.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 6:35 pm
"Costume...Accessories, what do you remember." He said calmly.
Methodical was only as good as how much you were able to put it to use. Zac had years of practice that had never once come to light as Zinkenite, little hobbies he'd never NEEDED yet... but they would serve here, and serve well, regardless how how he was perceived.
"Do you have paper..." He asked. "And a Map?...Else I'm going to ask you to come to 'the bulletin board' with me.
"Did any of them use attacks that you can tell... markings, names used... anything, take your time...but don't... we need to move, not too fast but we need to move." He was angry... he was excited... anxious, something.
The need to know crawled over his skin the way his attempts to be 'what the other generals' were, never did, never COULD. THIS, this he understood, the way he understood chess games with Uranophane, with anyone...
Map's, details, plans, strings and directions... 'they had a plan'... oh, there would be plans alright.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:08 pm
"I don't know, I don't know," she murmured, shutting her eyes and bringing up the back of her hand to prop her forehead against. She was tired and broken. Not only had she taken a beating she wouldn't soon forget, but she had wasted so much energy teleporting that she couldn't even power up if she tried.
"There's paper, I don't know if there's a map anywhere though," she opened her eyes and picked her head back up, dropping her hand. "I don't know if I can make it to the bulletin board, not in the subspace." She spread her hands in a very 'just look at me' kind of way, then leaned back slowly into the cushions of the couch.
"I can describe the first three, their outfits, but I didn't see a single attack. The girl that occupied me was dressed in some.. gypsy dancer fuku that was completely inappropriate." She leaned her head on the back of the couch and shut her eyes, furrowing her brows like she might be able to recall more if she could just concentrate.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:20 pm
"Would you like some tea..." He asked suddenly, a question as much meant to disarm her as to eliminate some of the stress he could see building in her shoulders.
"Take your time... we can take a walk if you want..." He moved and knelt before where she sat on the couch.
"You can do this, I believe in you." He said quietly... that was one small gift he had, he spoke well, he -could- speak kindly if he must, though it took him work to form the words well.
"Were any of their faces familiar from Elision..." He tried carefully, if he removed her from the stress of the most recent situation... would it help? Psychology books especially the beginner ones he'd been wading through, weren't very clear on the point.
Honestly he'd say they weren't clear on much of anything, except a lot of cigar jokes but, he was honestly being over cynical.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:29 pm
"Tea would be nice, though I don't know if I have the energy for a walk, or if I should even leave right now." She glanced worriedly towards the bedroom door again, then back to Z as if she'd never done it. She was concerned over more than just the kidnapping business.
She was just about to lay her head back again when he moved to kneel in front of her and instead chose to sit up straight, tucking her uninjured knee up and resting a hand on it. It was strange to see him getting inside her personal space - not that she minded, but she was well aware of the distance he preferred to keep from people.
"No, I don't recall anything really," she began, thinking back hard to the things she'd seen in Elysion. Then, as if something obvious had just smacked her in the face, she drew in a sharp breath. "Actually, I fought briefly with Requiem. That's the brat that trapped me inside the coffin, that's her attack." She frowned at this, wondering how she had missed it, or if she'd just been too occupied up until now to remember. "I also fought briefly with that same redheaded Senshi, but she didn't use her attack then either." She frowned as she realized the second part, slowly coming to the realization that she might have been targeted by the kickboxer because she had recognized her from Elysion.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:37 pm
"Red hair..." he said quietly... What color was her uniform top? White or black..." He asked as he moved as quietly as he could to try and find the makings for tea. He hoped she did not mind that somewhat rude behavior but he didn't want her thinking about menial things, he needed colors if nothing else.
"Brown accents... it could be gunn... she uses fire, there was another with...a green skirt and white top... I don't know her name but she had short red hair." A pause before continuing... "And there is Sailor Ares, black top...pink-ish skirt, hair in a ponytail and uses smoke."
//And hunted me to try and get the crimson crystal// he thought bitterly.
That might be a bartering chip... offer the 'real' crystal up to lure them to a trap.
Was he willing to take that risk?
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 7:45 pm
She shook her head at him as he started to name things, bringing up one of her hands to rub at her temple gently - for both her hand and head's sake.
"No, no, Gunn and Ares showed up first, with Requiem. We knew to look out for them, knew who they were, expected them." She drew in a long breath and let it out again, though her brows remained furrowed. It looked like she might be getting a headache or, rather, that her headache might be getting worse.
"This one had a long, bright red braid and her fuku just looked like a white swimsuit with some feathery red accents. There wasn't almost anything to it, and not enough to even guess at her sphere." She glanced up to where he'd disappeared just inside the kitchen, looking through the supplies. She watched him, almost amused, before she finally pushed herself off of the couch with a tiny limp because of her slowly-stiffening knee.
"It's in the pantry, there's a few new boxes because there were none here. I don't know if Tanzanite even knows what tea is." Her playful words didn't match the tone, or the look on her face, but regardless she moved to lean against the counter. Standing might have hurt her knee but it made her less tired.
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2011 8:03 pm
"I think the only thing she 'eats' these days are star seeds and whatever alcohol I keep catching whiffs of on her..." He 'teased' back. "... I know a lot of people with that diet." He added, ok it was a 'frat boy' joke but anything to remove that uncomfortable 'not quite human' feel that the aggressive, dangerous, double-voiced general gave.
He had to admit an odd sort of envy for the voice though, it was really quite amazing in a 'mess with your head' kind of way.
"I'll make a note...we'll find her." He nodded. "Her and everyone else among them." He started the tea and turned to lean with her, waiting for the water to heat, though he was cheating more than a little by absconding with the microwave and -teabags- rather than loose leaf.
"Coffins... " he murmured quietly. "She was at the ball with the crystal too..."
He pulled back his sleeve to reveal the crimson crystal, attached to the latest incarnation of the launch 'section' of his weapon. After all he could never have fuzed it to one of the small 'starseeds' that now housed his smoke.
"... I'll be helping of course..." He said and glanced at her. Oh yes... there were some faces he'd be putting on -just- for them.
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