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Her brain was trying to work, trying to figure out how to they could live, but she came up short. Nothing. She would have been vaguely surprised by the fact that Armagnac was not yelling at her, but again, her focus was on the outside world. Jake was on the ground by then, dying again.

Which was then shaking. She heard voices, she saw blasts... and then she saw the Horseman coming at her and she knew she wouldn't live through what ever he was going to do-- She saw the dagger, and she felt energy from the blast that saved her life.

She was on the ground when she heard the order to move. Her head was still ringing and she knew things were falling apart around them. And Jake was... her brain registered the fact that someone grabbed him. Thank heaven.

Armagnac rumbled in her head then, and Sherry nearly panicked. What if... it was a short detour, but she couldn't just... Desummoning her own weapon, Sherry found herself searching the ground for the pieces of Chester. Dear, sweet Chester. She had heard Jake scream his name. If...If...Poor Chester. Poor Jake.



She thought she had all of him. She hoped she did.

When it was all said and done, Sherry was standing there, her head still ringing, cradling the broken bits of Jake's weapon. She cried as she looked at Jake, knowing there was nothing she could do. For either of them.

"Can...can you fix them?" It was a question for their rescuers.

Jake let out a grunt as he dropped to the floor, too tired to protest. Though he despised the horseman, he had to somewhat agree on the idea of self-sacrifice.
Sherry... Gale... why were you two so stupid? Sherry he could somewhat understand, but Gale... really? He thought he grated on his nerves, so why... or... unless he was offering to die in Sherry's stead. It still didn't make a difference. They were idiots. Why didn't they escape?

He was going to try to convince them again, tell them that they were wasting their time and that they should just portal out, when something above them shook, a shout... He didn't have to bother getting down as he was already lying on the floor, but as some sort of beam passed through, he ended up getting tossed against the wall, letting out a groan as he slumped over. That voice...

Lifting his head, he saw a familiar-looking death hunter barking out an order to someone else. His head was spinning too much to remember her name at that moment, but he had caught movement from the corner of his eye, and he pushed himself up just in time to see the horseman lunging towards...

"SHERRY!!"

There was a sigh of relief when he was dissipated, and he slumped back to the ground, content to die in this place. Chester was broken, and he... what good was a weaponless hunter? At least the others would return safely, and-
His thought process was interrupted when he felt himself being dragged out (quite literally), and there was a bit of relief when he saw that the others were safe, which escalated into panic once again when he realized they had dragged him out before he could-

Hearing Sherry's question, he turned, wide-eyed, and let out an audible sigh of relief when he saw that she had Chester. Thank God.

Mark would utter an audible "Augh!" as Sam pretty much dumped the weight that was Jake on the Death assistant. She took out her cell phone, looking impatient, before turning to the motley crew. "Portal's being set up, thankfully someone already took Bethany, she gave them a look, "because I don't care how damaged you think you are but if you think I'm touching that thing..." Sam trailed off, as Mark fumbled to lay Jake down flat on the grass, having been a Life Hunter prior to his exile promotion and mostly because it didn't matter what Division one was in, basic Hunter First Aid was pretty much an essential, and pulled out several Runic bandages and what looked like a glowing tube of toothpaste, lobbing generous amounts on Jake's heavier wounds to stop the bleeding before using the bandages.

At some point he registered Sherry's question, staring blankly at the ruined weapon and then slowly opening his mouth, "Um, wow, that is going to be a lot to-"

"-No really." Sam snapped, still on hold on her call. "If big boy here is still alive then his weapon core wasn't damaged, which means it's not our problem. Our division's pretty lacking in funding anyway so if he wants to fix his pretty toy he's going to have to do it himself." She smirked, looking at Jake. "I have just a slight feeling he won't be needing it anytime soon." Boys with their new toys, after all.

Her cell phone gave a ding and the next moment she nodded. "Portal's cleared. We're good to go."

Slowly, Mark pulled up Jake, supporting the Death trainee in one shoulder as they hobbled to the portal. There was only, however, one slight problem.

The Death lead was standing right in front of the portal.

Sherry would later decide she was in shock. She would also decide she didn't like being in shock, as it appeared to render her near useless. For goodness sake, she was crying where everyone could see it, which only made things worse.

She'd watched as Gale...slapped Jake. Sherry understood. Foolishness had gotten them here. She still didn't think he deserved--- Stormy. Oh, no. Stormy. Sherry gasped, and might have started to cry a bit more. Not sobs or anything, but the tears were falling. This was...this was all... She looked to Marcus, who seemed semi-Ok. Gah. Two members of their team out for the count, a busted weapon, and a general thrashing had been had. It was... terrible.

Her attention was dragged to Sam, who said something about cores and alive and fixing things. Did that mean Chester could come back? Sherry looked from the broken bits of weapon and to Jake. She didn't quite know what Mark was gooping all over Jake, but she was sure it would help. Good, good. Things would end up alright. She nodded at Gale. They were going home and....

Sherry's mind was suddenly very clear as she caught sight of the Death lead standing between them and home. She suddenly remembered all those times in her childhood when her and her friends had gotten yelled at for being dumb little kids. Few things were more terrifying than a parent berating you. Horsemen were, but this was....this was Caelius. Why was he here?

Jake only watched Gale made his way towards him, already half-expecting what he thought the hunter was about to do. The slap had caught him somewhat off guard, but he didn't protest, face still turned from the impact. But why was there something wet on his-

It was then he saw that there was blood on the hunter's hand, and guilt ate at him. This was... all his fault. Stormy was barely conscious, Gale was bleeding, Marcus... probably had a broken nose, and... just... why did things turn out this way? Why did they even follow after him? This was... all his fault. He didn't have much time to wallow in self-pity as he found himself unceremoniously tossed at the Death assistant, and if he wasn't hating himself at the moment, he would have been rather pissed that he was being carried by a hunter he considered completely incompetent due to their last horsemen mission. Though when Sam mentioned Bethany...

OH s**t.

Where... was that giant-a** scanner? Weren't they looking after it?
... Or had they all left it behind to look for him?
Now he felt worse and worse.

Of course, that might have been partly due to his injuries, and as he was dumped to the ground, letting out a groan, he contemplated punching Mark to let out some frustration, but... 1. He was too tired to, and 2. It was probably a bad idea to punch someone who was attempting to somewhat salvage the pathetic life you lived up until now, and started cursing when Mark stopped lobbing on some kind of glowing goop on him, trying his best not to flail and hit him in the process. He was helping, ok, he was actually helping.

The comment about his weapons made him turn, a brief look of relief hearing that the core hadn't been shattered.
... That meant it could be fixed, right?
Though Sam earned somewhat of a glare when she seemed to imply he could always get a new one.

And then there was news the portal was open, they would finally get the hell out of here, and-
Of course. Life never worked that easily.
He swallowed nervously when he caught sight of the Death lead, remembering how... physical he could get when he was displeased. The team was already battered and bruised, they really didn't need more casualties, and considering he was... supposedly the "leader" of this mission, the responsibility would fall on him, wouldn't it?

Letting go of Mark, he stumbled towards Caelius.
"S-sir..."

The Death lead's presence alone was enough to create a lapse in silence. Sam and Mark for once were on similar pages of confusion and apprehension, Sam moving in first.

"Targets sighted and disposed of, Sir. We retrieved the Hunters missing in action and-"

-"And the fragment?" Caelius spoke however as if he already knew the answer.

"None accounted for. Unfortunately, the element of surprise was sort of ruined for us." Sam made extremely confused faces at Jake and then the motley, broken-down crew, as if telepathically asking them what could have possessed them to make such a terrible choice. "As I wasn't here to fully observe the mission, I can only deduct what might have happened."

Mark licked his lips, staying silent. He was too busy trying to make sure Jake didn't bleed to death, nervously fastening and refastening more bandages.

"Then for the party involved," and then the Death lead was staring very clearly at Marcus, Sherry, Gale, Stormy, "how would you report the status of your mission?"

... Fragment? Was that the thing that shadow child was carrying?
Since the Death Lead hadn't addressed him directly, he thought it best to stay quiet, letting Mark dress his wounds. He wasn't sure why he was still trying. Why not just let him bleed to death? He was pretty much dead after Caelius found out what happened anyways.