Welcome to Gaia! ::

Anser hadn't liked the feeling of those two particularly bright aurae on her radar.

She could have left them alone. She could have let those who were strong enough to fight them fight it out, and taken a wide berth to handle more of the youma about. Anser was confident in her ability to handle those, and proportionally she'd be saving more people by handling that while such a strong chaotic aura was distracted.

To say that Anser was particularly good at holding herself back, though?

She always insisted on fighting the hardest bosses. Anser punched up with the intent to kill, with the intent to end the scourge on their ******** planet--their ******** universe, even. If she could give whatever light bright power some backup, perhaps the one that felt like a black hole could be defeated for good. A more powerful stance, a more useful action than fighting against some youma, no doubt. If anything, those that glowed so brightly could better deal with youma, as much as it pained her to admit that.

At first, her pursuit of the energies was slow. She wanted to make sure they stayed distracted with each other, or at least the dark one did. Easier to fall into the flank if she wasn't noticed in the first place. Anser was fairly sure there were entire rulebooks in tabletop games based on fighting like this; they missed the mark of reality to some degree but they also weren't wrong.

... But then, the bright light blipped out.

When the chaotic one lingered before disappearing, Anser felt her heart jump into her throat. A kidnapping? A--

No.

Anser called on her super magic to allow her speed to make her feet fly. No.

No.

No.

"CYBELE!"

Anser stumbled forward and nearly fell to her knees at the side of the fallen figure, reaching to shake her as if that would resolve the problem. That did nothing about the pool of blood, the tear deep within her chest, and the fact that Anser sobbing her name again and again wasn't earning her a response. ********. <********> Should she have run faster? Did attempting tactics actually cause more disaster? What had the Negaverse done? Why did they always take, and take, and--

take?

Anser was shaking, and not even noticing how the feathering of her dress was also painted red. What could she do?

What could she hope to do?

Nothing felt real. Her heart pounded in her ears.

She scraped at Cybele's dress as if that might provide an answer not present.

"Please."

Pleading with a corpse wasn't her finest moment. Certainly didn't get her anywhere. Cybele's skin was still warm, but something of it felt clammy in a way she was unfortunately familiar with. Too late, too late, too late--

If she hadn't tried to lay out a strategic way to help eliminate a general-sovereign -- king, the singed smell told her -- perhaps she could have gotten in the way of something like this. Even a lost arm from a swipe would be better than this.

What was she supposed to do with this?

How did she tell her partners, her family, the other people Cybele was talking to about a team? Surprise, she's dead? At least she's not corrupted again, that would have been a worse fate?

As she searched, partially in hope of finding her cell phone, Anser felt something oddly round and cool. Something seemed intriguing about it, and she lifted it.

A magical... pearl? What?

Anser laughed bitterly. Of all the ******** things to find, what the hell was this?

She'd deal with it later.

Anser tossed it to the side, and then did a double take at the appearance of smoke. What the--

She was dead, and all Anser managed to do was shroud the body in smoke.

Great.

Cybele suddenly bolted up, and Anser couldn't quick stop the squeak of surprise. That body have been dead. That body had definitely just been dead. That body was suddenly very alive. She was very happy about it, but she was also very confused, and very concerned, did she accidentally make Cybele a youma somehow because that would be even worse--

That was her voice. That was her voice, warbly and distorted by how her chest had been torn into. Was there fluid in her lungs? There almost had to be fluid in her lungs. Her entire body had been distorted. She knew some things about first aid but she didn't know how to bring people back from this, they needed to get her to a hospital she was legitimately still alive--

"Cybele," she choked out, quietly, pushing past her own alarm and stress and relief and confusion to respond. What did she do? What did she do?

They needed to get her to a hospital. Or, more specifically, Anser did.

"Hang on, hang on," she positioned herself a bit closer to get herself into a position where she could easily scoop her hands underneath Cybele's body. Couldn't expect her to walk herself there. Picking her up like this is probably going to hurt though, she couldn't imagine how much pain this had to be, not with the way her back was arching--

How did all the people in her life end up in so much pain?

"Anser's gaggle has got you, and more specifically I've got you. Got to get you to a hospital. My mom works at one, I can get there pretty fast from here..."

And maybe the squawking geese would buy them a bit more time.

How much time did this actually buy them? Where had Cybele found that? Why had she thrown it? Why hadn't she thrown it sooner?

There was still blood, and there would be more if she didn't get moving.

Anser was relieved when she saw the wounds begin to stitch themselves up. Some of them were still there, the gnarliest ones for sure, but perhaps at least it was not pain literally everywhere. It bought time, and it also taught her that this ability could be used on other people. She usually used it on herself to keep herself going while she was fighting--

The proud smile and commentary brought a grin to Anser's face. "Surprising, right? Think it has to do with my past life self's duties or whatever, she was a mediator so her whole thing was fixing up problems but also people's wounds because of those."

And to get to that point she had to ritually kill a gigantic creature. She supposed Anserians had always been a people of duality--

Not important at the moment, was it. The geese would only last so long, and it wasn't like they were a fix it all or anything.

Cybele was alive somehow. Anser had to make sure she stayed that way.

"I'll power down once we get closer. Easier to keep moving fast while hauling a** in this skin." And as if to display that, she took in a deep breath and then exhaled as she pulled Cybele up, opting for something of a bridal carry. Easiest way to manage to weight while keeping herself moving.

Would they be okay?

... Hopefully. Not out of the woods yet.

"I'll get my mom once we get there -- she knows about all this s**t, so," Anser breathed out as she walked, attempting to let go of the tension in her nerves. "She'll get you situated in a room so they can start addressing these wounds."

And then she'd accept that they'd be okay a little bit easier.