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Broken Bones [REG28]

Life sucked. Life sucked hard.

To think, not that long ago, even, this wouldn't have been too far from his usual activities – play videogames, work on programs, watch anime, enjoy a good tea, take care of whatever chore needed to be taken care off, sleep, done.

But now it was slowly driving him nuts, or so he felt, at least. The pain in particular was annoying, through the energy his sister and Painite brought him helped out a lot on that aspect, but he felt... idle. Useless. Completely and utterly useless, like this, wasting away time – hours, days – where he could have otherwise have been useful in one way or another.

To say nothing about his involvement in the Blood Moon Court operation and what his injury would mean for it, depending on when it would happen. Careless. He'd been chosen to come along for a reason, certainly... A tactical reason, knowing General Zinkenite. And he'd gone and ******** that up.

What good was a weapon that was broken into pieces ? Not much good, really.

Add to that his sister acting oddly and refusing to tell him why and Matthew was nearing breaking point, really. He could have investigated, asked others if they knew what Fluorite had been up to, but that required powering up on his injury and running the risk that a senshi or knight would take the opportunity to easily flatten him into a long haired pancake.

So he was useless, more or less stuck at home, and left wondering what exactly his sister had done. He feared something stupid, of course. It was very common for his sister to do something completely unthoughtful and well... stupid in her impulsivity.

Anger never helped anyone think clearly, at that.

All of that because of one damn senshi. The damn eternal. He'd come out of nowhere and crashed Painite's carefully strung together plan so close to it's success and it made him so angry to think about it. It had worked like a charm, all gone along without an hitch. He'd had his hand on the damned page's starseed.

He could still feel it now. Pulsing. Powerful. Warm, even, inviting. The second his fingers had brushed the starseed, he had known only one thing – how bad he wanted it. How amazing a prize it would have been, more precious than any jewels mankind liked to christen as precious gems.

But he had lost it. He had lost it so frustratingly close of getting it that a part of him still ached the lost. He knew he wouldn't have been able to keep his trophy – he didn't care. Only having it, for that brief moment, would have been good enough, he was certain. Savor the moment like a fine wine, until the time came where he could have held another.

But that had all been ruined. All of it. The page had gotten away, his lovely bounty of a starseed in tow, and now he was laying on the couch of his apartment, broken and useless.

The next time he saw the a*****e, he would break every damn bone of his body. That much he was certain about. And he would enjoy every moment of it. Savor every sickening crack.

But that day wasn't today. It wouldn't be tommorow. It wouldn't be next week. It might not even be next month. Or next year.

Finding one specific senshi among the seemingly endless amount crawling around might as well have been impossible.

The tv was showing the game over screen of the game he'd been playing and Matthew chucked his controller at the wall with an irritated growl.

Damn it all.

An Unusual Meeting [REG31]

Sneaking back inside his apartment had been much harder than sneaking out of it had been – now he had to be careful not to wake up Sebastian – surely he was home now at this hour – and his chest flared in bright, red hot pain. He hoped he hadn't broken the damn thing again or worse, broken another. That certainly would be the last thing he needed.

He scaled the wall and squeezed through the window of his room, crashing down on the floor with a loud thud and instantaneously letting go of his transformation, recalling the power inward. The holes on his chest and forehead vanished, covered by glamour, and most of hair vanished along with the dark, star-covered clothing, leaving only the familiar, more comfortable shortness, wild and spiky as if it was meant to be home to a few baby birds rather that being hair on top of his head.

And so Matthew was flattened on the floor, waiting. If that had woken up his roommate, he would need to explain the noise – perhaps easily explained as him having fallen out of bed. So he remained still, ignoring the pang of pain breathing brought him, and waited.

All was silent. Finally, after a few more seconds, he sighed, and moved to first sit, then get up – wincing a bit at the pain in his chest.

Yep, he'd screwed up alright. He'd screwed up more than he liked to think about. In his mind, he had just screwed up the whole damn operation.

Had he managed to grap Ilmenite, get him away from those damned senshi, the whole exchange would have not needed to have taken place. At all. They would have been at the advantage of having an hostage, not at a stalemate.

Add that the senshi that had stolen his power – he was uncertain which one, or even how that was even possible – had been the icing on the cake. He had been officially used against his own teammates, in a way.

It made him sick.

He wobbled to his feet, hand clamped hard on his chest as he made his way to his desk. There was a bottle of pills here. As the energy had worked to heal him more and more, he had stopped taking the painkillers before the end of his given prescription, feeling no more need for it. Well, now the need was there, and one pill was taken out of the container and swallowed without any need for water. The taste was horrible and chalky, as pills tended to be, but bearable.

He sat in his chair then, unwilling to make his way to his bed. He looked outside, to the night sky, and thought. Thought about everything that had gone wrong, and how he might have been able to avoid it. Should he had gone after Ilmenite earlier ? Later ? Had there been info on the power-stealing senshi ? Had he misread something, had this been something he could have avoided in any way ?

...Had he been in Ilmenite's place, would anyone even had bothered to save him ? The last one was chilling, a doubt he could never quite shake. He was a senshi, a damn senshi. A weapon, nothing more, nothing less. A weapon could be easily replaced. All they would need to do was corrupt another senshi, one that might even have a more useful power sphere than his own.

Fluorite would have. Hiro would probably have, given that he was a guardian cat. Dahlia, too, for the same reason. Lyra and Alkaid, probably, as they were just like him.

But anyone else ? He could never be certain. Were they only polite with him out of some sort of obligation, the wolf having been fitted into the sheep's skin ?

Chilling.

He pulled the drawer and took out a bottle of clear liquid – vodka, given to him by his parents for his birthday. The Desmond elders had never been all that hand-fast with the drinking ages – even now Ashley was allowed to drink on family gatherings. They'd had in mind that if they could experience it with them, they wouldn't sneak out to do it.

Never stopped Ashley, but the fact still remained that his parents hadn't cared at all that drinking age was 21 ever since he'd passed 18, so alchoolic gifts weren't uncommon. The bottle had been hardly touched, but now it was uncapped, the contents pouring out into a leftover glass.

Alchool and medicaton – not the best idea he'd ever had, but he didn't care.

He sipped at the raspberry vodka, and continued to stare out the window.

It was gonna be a long night.

Fade To Black [REG33]

Space Invaders, Uh... [REG35]

Drilling Some Answers Into Ya [BAT12]