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Cantata just stood there and stared penitently at Terragon's mother. Her hands curled into a tight ball in front of her, and her head tilted downwards. It was taking all she had just to look at the older woman. She wanted to run out of the room. She wanted to hide. And it must have been apparent on her face.

The woman just stared back at her. Her frail form just as still and calm as it had been when she entered the room. And...after a moment of taking in Cantata's expression...she smiled warmly at the young Creator. ”It's alright...” she said, her voice quiet and gentle. ”You should know by now I don't bite.”

That only seemed to add to Cantata's overwhelming feeling of guilt. Rather than relaxing or giving her a smile back, Cantata tensed up farther, and her eyes widened and became glassy. Why couldn't it have been Libran that had walked in. She had been prepared for a lashing. She had been prepared for someone to blame the whole thing on her. She had been prepared for grief, anger, everything that she was already feeling herself. She would have felt better if the woman had just slapped her across the face. Anything, anything would have been easier to take than...than for her to be so....so....

”I'm.....I'm sorry....” Cantata choked out, closing her eyes tightly and crossing her arms. Gripping the sleeves of her outfit tight enough that the leathery material sent deep grooves through the length of the sleeves. ”I'm sorry....I'm so sorry, Aquilla. I....I was....Terragon was trying to keep me safe and I didn't listen. I never listen. I...I ran off and he came looking for me. If....if he hadn't come looking for me then he wouldn't have....it would have been ME that was....that...” she said, or at least tried to. Her words were getting caught in her throat, and it felt like she had a knot in her chest.

Before she could try and force much more out, she felt two gentle arms wrap around her and pull her against the other woman. Aquilla let out long, quiet breaths to shush her from trying to say anything more. ”It's alright, little one...” she said quietly, soothingly. ”It's alright....It's not your fault. Terragon's always tried to look out for you. He made sure you stayed safe.”

Cantata made another small choking sound and started trembling. ”But....but...I ran off. He told me to stay and I left. We-we were fighting. And then....then...”

”We all thought he was gone.” Aquilla said, still gentle and soothingly. ”You couldn't have known. It's alright, little one. You know Terragon would have put your safety above his. No matter if you listened to him or not.” she said, then gently unwrapped Cantata from her embrace. She took a frail finger and tilted Cantata's head up to look at her. A warm, loving smile still on her face. ”And you know he wouldn't want you to feel this way. Would he?”

Cantata looked at her, tears rolling down her face. But as she thought about Aquilla's last words, a small smile wrapped around her face. Then she coughed as a small chuckle bubbled up and she looked away to wipe her eyes. ”No...he'd be reprimanding me for it. Act my age, put that energy into making something...oh, or how about 'quit being an attention hog, I'm the one in the cast'. That was my favorite the two or three times he broke something because my creation didn't work quite right.”

Aquilla's smile grew. ”Too much of his father in him I'm afraid. You should have heard some of the things his father would complain about when Lord Chaos caused him a bit of extra grief.”

Cantata's smile quickly faded and she stared at the ground for a moment before looking back up at Aquilla. ”Um...speaking of which...has Zira-” he began, but stopped as two large doors creaked open behind them. Cantata quickly turned around to find her own parents walking out of the doors she had been staring at for so long. Usually, when someone was in a rather dire medical situation, they would be called in to see if they could create a treatment for the ill. She could remember even as a child when they would be called into this building. It looked different back then, but one thing was always the same. They would walk through those large doors, smiling and chatting quietly about whatever they had just done, and thinking of new ways they could use it later on.

The two former Creators walked out of the large doors....quiet. Solemn. Neither of them were smiling. Neither of them were chatting. And neither of them would keep eye contact once they looked up and found Cantata and Aquilla standing a few feet away from them.

Cantata's entire form tensed up once again.

She wasn't sure how long she'd sat there. It felt like she'd just been sitting there for longer than she had been out in the hall. And the hall felt like an eternity. Probably because she was so worked up out there. The whole unknown...guilt...anger....grief. Now....now that she was sitting here...she didn't know how to feel. All she could do was just sit there and stare at him.

Terragon was lying on one of the hospitals best beds. Wrapped in bloody bandages, a special blanket that was supposed to heal external injuries, hooked up with several wires and tubes that were monitoring his health, and shielded in several very thick germ-free plastic barriers keeping him separated from the rest of the room. Both to make sure he didn't get worse, and to keep others from catching anything. They didn't even know if he was contagious right now or not. No one had ever survived one of Thorn's bombs, so there wasn't really any prior knowledge or experience over what was happening with Terry.

Cantata just sat in one of the waiting chairs with her legs curled up tightly against her...staring through the layers of specialized plastics that were keeping her from getting any closer to Terragon. She could go in closer to him. She could make herself as clean and safe as possible for Terragon...and she'd carried him back, so it wasn't like she was going to catch anything now. But....she didn't really want to go in. She was afraid she would manage to make things worse some how. But what if this was the last chance she had to....to talk to him? He probably couldn't hear her anyway. He was sleeping, so how could he hear her? Still....that's what lots of people did, right? Talked to them even if they probably can't hear. Because there was a chance that they could hear you? That's what...that's what the normal people did, right? Should she? Would he hear her, get angry and wake up to yell at her? To be honest, she'd give anything for him to just...wake up and give her a Libran-sized lecture.

She sat there, staring pensively at the plastic, then around the room. When she was sure that there was no one around to tell her no, she jumped off the chair and made her way through the barriers as quickly as she could. That of course being phasing. Not that she created that, but it was a task learning how to do such a thing to begin with. Once she was through all of the barriers, she stopped and stood at the end of the bed. Suddenly finding it very hard to move any further...and the pit in her stomach seemed to drop even further.

That smell....what was that? It...it didn't smell like any sort of medicine that they would have put on him. She'd smelled really awful scented medicine before, and this smelled more like...... like.....
…. no. She wasn't going to believe it was that. She was just going to..... assume that her parents had tried something new.

Very carefully, she moved to the other side of the bed, keeping her eyes on Terragon as she moved. It looked like they couldn't bandage his face up, or put the mask over his mouth like they should have. He had those awful tubes.... probably because the mask would hurt him. His white skin was tinted pink now, and there were patches of rough red areas around his neck and cheeks. That.... that must have been what they were talking about. After taking a look down at his hand, she knew that his face and neck were very mild cases still. And..... the smell probably is what she thought it was.

Cantata just stood there, staring at his hand. That.... that was going to be all of him before long. Then she let out a very sharp choking sound and covered her face with one of her hands. She needed the other to grip the wall so she didn't fall over. ”You are going to have SUCH a conniption fit when you wake up.” she said, choking again before wiping her eyes. Smiling down at his face. Now she needed to talk to him. Mostly to keep herself from having a complete break down right then and there.

”Oh you are going to be so ticked when you wake up. I mean you turn five shades of red when Zira turns your skin colors, and heaven forbid anyone ruffs up your hair.” she laughed. ”Oh! Oh... your hair. Thats not going to fall out is it? You're... it's not going to get that bad, right? If it is then you better wake up now. You don't want to be bald, do you? Wouldn't that be a sight. You'd better wake up before something like that happens. We can't figure out what to do.... and when that happens then you or Libran were always the ones who could fix things.” she said, still smiling.

Then she grew quiet. And just..... stared at him. She sighed deeply and cupped her face in her hands. Held that pose for a long few moments, then dropped her arms to her sides. Then decided to cross them in front of her and lean against the wall completely. ”Will you.... will you please just wake up and yell at me? Give me a lecture? Anything. I just... this whole thing is my fault. I didn't do what I was told again, and things got screwed up, so now I need to be yelled at. And..... and no one is doing that. I don't..... it doesn't feel right not having you yelling at me right now.” she said, then slid down the wall and onto the floor. ”I just.... it's too quiet. You're never this quiet. And I need to be yelled at for this. No ones done that yet.” she said, then looked up at the bed at what she could see of his face. ”I haven't seen your dad, so I don't know if he'll yell at me. Your mom didn't yell at me, but she never yells at anyone.” she said, then paused a moment and laughed. ”You know, I don't think I've noticed it until now. But your dad only has one set of expressions, and your mom only has the other. I've never seen her get mad or upset or anything. She's always caring. She never yells at anyone.” she said, then grew quiet again.

”Oh.... no, I'm wrong. I have heard her yell. I have seen her angry face. Once, and only once. It was with, who else, Thorn. When we were all teenagers. Oh. But I'm not supposed to tell anyone about it. I don't think she wanted me to tell anyone about her rare change of mood, and I was supposed to be nice and not tell anyone that Thorn had his butt handed to him by her.” she said with a laugh, then grew quiet again. Very quiet. She shivered and curled her legs up tightly against her, then leaned up against the side of the bed.

”Thorn.... it's always Thorn.... He was always, ALWAYS doing something. Especially to me. What with the age difference, gender, and opposing titles we have. But he always took it too far. Always scared me. And you....you were always....” she said, her voice trailing off.

”I'm sorry.... I'm so sorry. It's all my fault. It's just.... I could never stand up for myself when we were little. You did. You were always the one protecting me. A lot of the time before anything could even happen. You took care of it. And I just....instead of trying to stand my own I just used you to protect me. And I got used to that. Enough that when we got a little older and you started paying more attention to Zira..... well I tried to create a little trouble for myself so that you'd have to stick around me still too. In case if something DID happen, you'd be around to take care of it. And then...... after a while I guess you just got used to keeping a close eye on both us girls. And I just... I got tired of you keeping such a close eye on me. And I started finding trouble to get into for myself. Trying to do stuff on my own without you being around to play big brother.” she said quietly, sniffling. She hugged her legs against her tighter, and was now practically hugging the side of the bed as well.

”I... I'm so sorry, Terragon. I should have just... did what you told me. I'm sorry. Please just...just wake up and yell at me. Tell me I did something stupid. Tell me to shut up. Anything. Just...please don't.... don't d-” she said before choking on the last word.

// Yes, I know I'm being a bit lazy with all the little time skips with this whole bit, but...meh. Kind of tedious doing this whole thing myself along with the other projects I have to work on. I wanna try to move this along. //



Aquila had tried to argue with her, tried to calm her down, but Cantata was far too worked up now to calm down and listen to her. She was GOING to help Terragon. She was GOING to find a way to help him before Aquilla tried to help him herself. Knowing that the process would take all the energy she had left to give. Cantata wasn't about to let that happen. She wasn't about to loose anyone else that she considered her family. She wasn't going to loose both of them over something that she felt was her fault.

The moment that Aquilla had agreed that she would not try to heal Terragon unless she absolutely had to....Cantata vanished from the building. She had no idea where she was going to find help...but she knew of at least a few people who could help her.


EXIT Cantata to Exodus

Sandra would have looked around at everything, but she was not here for sightseeing, she knew that much. Her heels clacked along the hospital floor as she moved into Terragon's room and she moved in a determined strut that Xavia, who was behind her as she walked, would very likely appreciate... Hint, hint.

Sandra moved into Terragon's room and looked down at his bandaged and burned form with a frown, her nose picking up the strange, putrid scent of whatever had affected him. Whatever this was, it had to have been powerful magic indeed to hurt this being like this-- Sandra knew instinctively that she was looking at a celestial being who was clinging to life, but barely.

Yes... I saw a bit of what could happen with Alex when she and Luke were attacked... Sandra thought to herself. She glanced to Cantata.

"What is the extent of his injuries?" she asked the Creator, totally serious. "If I know what is affecting him, I will be better able to help him."

Sandra frowned. "Oh... Mystical affliction that eats away at the skin... Haven't seen something like this in at least ten years, and not nearly as bad as this..." she said, seeming to be muttering to herself.

She set her hands above Terragon's body and began muttering a series of long, very complex incantations under her breath. Normally, she didn't even need to do this kind of thing because she was so powerful, but then, she'd never encountered something like this, on this level of power. She was going up against the power of a physical god, if what Cantata was saying, and Abolisher's power level, were to be believed.

Her hands began to glow gold, and the mystical energy from the spell she was invoking began to wrap itself around Terragon's body. This was, honestly, more magic than she'd used in some time... But not enough to fatigue her. Not yet at least.

Sandra increased her power gradually, but the poison simply could not budge. She set about a mystical barrier inside of Terragon's being that the magic of Abolisher's poison would not be able to penetrate, but it was not permanent; eventually, the barrier would break down... But Sandra cast another spell, one to accelerate the healing of those parts of Terragon's body the the infection had been pushed out of, which would further slow down the time it took for the poison to fatally harm Terragon.

Sandra ceased her spellcasting, and looked to Cantata and Xavia with a heavy frown. "This is... Interesting," she said slowly. "I've never before encountered magic that I couldn't get to actually leave a person's body if the caster is on a similar power level to me; which, based on what I could sense, this... Thorn, is it? He is. Maybe a little stronger, but I'd have to see for myself."

Sandra moved to cantata and looked into her eyes, before placing a hand on the other woman's shoulder. She had only just met the woman, but she had a feeling she would do the exact same thing Cantata was doing if, say, her parents, or her husband or son were in Terragon's position.

"He's going to pull through this," she said firmly, "and don't doubt it. At all."