Welcome to Gaia! ::

Leo actually hadn't been out patrolling since the last time he'd seen Magellan and Sagittarius together.

That was nothing new; he was lazy. If someone didn't come and get him, chances were, he wouldn't go out. That was exactly what had happened this time, too, only he was a little grateful for it. Grayson had been lying in his bed, tracing patterns in the ceiling, waiting to fall asleep. Dani's phone call had been a welcome one, though he'd been less than enthusiastic about the idea of going out and patrolling. She'd insisted, though, and she was aggressive where he was passive, so he'd agreed.

And that was how he found himself outside, watching an exuberant Dani dance around and show off two slim, tanned arms, one finally sans cast. She made him smile, which was nice, and they set off together, getting a safe distance away from his house before they both henshined. Leo was much warmer than Magellan, though when he offered his jacket she declined.

They walked for a time, Magellan filling him in on how wonderful it was that she was able to start lifting weights again, the dogs were locked up tonight so don't worry, and oh, had he seen Jude lately? Leo's expression gave nothing away to Magellan, because he was good at hiding and she wasn't very keen on looking, but he told her no, not lately.

Not lately, and not likely to anytime soon. It'd be for the best, Jude had said. No more patrolling together because he'd hit a rough patch with Aries. Part of Leo wondered if he was being protected -- here, I've taken away your option, just stick with Aries -- and some of him resented it. He was well and capable of making his own decisions. He could patrol with Sagittarius and still be loyal to Aries, loyal to Chronos.

But he hadn't really been given the option. He'd just been told what would be for the best, and so he'd fallen in line with it. Like he always did.

Part of him still regretted that.

"Leo? Hello, are you listening?"

His attention snapped back to Magellan and he smiled, rubbing a hand on her shoulder. "Sorry. Lost in thought."

"That's not a good habit when we're henshined," Magellan scolded, fisting her hands on her hips. Constant vigilance. Okay, like I was saying, doesn't that look weird?"

He followed the jerk of her chin (and when she helpfully pointed, he was able to see what she was actually talking about) and his walk slowed. Was that... a treeline? In the middle of the street?

"Sagittarius?" He asked quietly, wondering. Something inside of him answered, and he quickened his pace. Jude's jungle? He was out patrolling?

His heart sank a little. He'd really been serious, hadn't he? He would go out alone before he went out with Leo. What had he done?

"Really? His jungle's out?" Despite only having seen it once, Magellan was not pleased by this. "So that probably means youma, right? Let's go."

Leo halted then, indecision warring violently with duty inside of him. Magellan was three full steps ahead before she realized he wasn't following.

Spinning, temper obvious in her face, she demanded, "What are you waiting for?"

When he still didn't move, she lunged at him, grabbing his hand and pulling. He finally gave in, breaking into a sprint with her, and slipped into the jungle.

What was he waiting for?

Grayson Graves sometimes followed directions correctly.

But only sometimes.

As soon as they'd entered the jungle he'd overtaken Magellan, though it was only because he happened in on a path and she didn't. She stumbled, swore, and was at his side again in a moment, blue hair whipping behind her as she leaned forward and began to sprint. They could both hear noise in the jungle, noise that probably meant a fight, but it wasn't their jungle. They had no idea where to go except to trust their sense of sound, and to be frank, in Sagittarius' jungle, they were already at a disadvantage.

He knew Jude had said not to patrol with him, but Magellan's words had been compelling, and seeing her charging forward into obvious danger made him feel a bit ashamed of himself. She was fearless or stupid, concerned or perhaps just ready for a real fight now that she was back to her old self. Regardless, he knew she was in front of him, running faster than him, and kicking up dirt as she went.

"I think this way!" He would have told her not to shout, because it only gave their location away, but the words were already out of her mouth. Leo brought an arm up, shielding his face as branches whipped past him, and barreled straight into her when she stopped.

"Magellan --" but she was turning, shoving him, shouting, "Go, go, go!"

He didn't know why until she threw all of her weight on top of him, slamming him into the ground as something swooped over their heads. Last he knew, Sagittarius didn't have any pterodactyls in his jungle. Youma.

His back hurt and his ribs ached from Magellan's full weight on top of him, but almost as soon as they hit the ground she was up again, sprinting after the creature. He barely had time to get to his feet again when he saw her leap up into a tree, use it as leverage to hurl herself at the flying beast.

She slammed into it, and the two of them went into a roll. Sagittarius forgotten, Leo dashed toward the pair in time to hear her scream, "Go find him!" before they disappeared into the brush.

He hesitated, cursed himself for hesitating, and took off in the direction the youma had come from. He had to put faith in Magellan, had to trust that she could handle herself; if the youma was running free in Sagittarius' jungle without him in hot pursuit, it had to mean that Sagittarius was unable to walk, unconscious, or fighting something else.

None of those options appealed to him.

He crested a small hill, went skidding down the side of it with his palm bracing him as dirt and dust swirled behind him in a magnificent display. At the base of it, he could see two figures, one clearly youma, the other --

His heart stopped, and he hit the base of the hill without any semblance to dignity. The resulting cloud of dirt filled his mouth and eyes, but it was also a shield, and he used it.

Relying purely on memory, hoping to God the beast hadn't moved, Leo kicked off the ground, adrenaline and panic pushing him farther and faster than even usual. He slammed into the youma, shoulder hitting right in its midsection with a staggering force, and managed to knock it away from Sagittarius. Still, the angle had been wrong, and though it was forced away, he didn't get a good grip on it.

He simply continued forward, carried by his own momentum, as he hit the ground and rolled.

However Magellan was faring, Leo hoped it was better than him.

After rolling and slamming his shoulder awkwardly against the ground, the last thing he expected was to be picked up off the ground and hurled at his teammate. His teammate who, he saw upon closer inspection, was trying to untangle himself from -- something -- that had come from his own jungle. Everything happened too fast for Leo to grasp many details, but he did know that the youma wasn't playing around. He had gouges in his side from its claws to prove that, and already there was blood dotting along his ribs like a macabre arrangement of buttons. Though the wounds hadn't been particularly deep, just enough for the youma to dig its claws in and throw, they hurt like a son of a b***h.

He didn't have time to think about that, however. Not even when he went barreling into Sagittarius, arms barely brought up in time so that he slammed his forearms into the other's chest. He didn't know what he expected it to help, except he used Sagittarius as leverage to stand again, shoving him roughly to the ground as he did so.

He stood in time for the youma to swipe her claws across his face, tearing his cheek, and he screamed. Grayson never raised his voice; Leo rarely did. But this was a scream of pain and anger, and blood sprayed with the motion of her claws. He gritted his teeth, throwing himself at the youma again, but only succeeded in locking it in an embrace.

This was like nothing he remembered; the youma was fast, the youma was smart. The youma was biting down on his shoulder, and he didn't have time to warn Sagittarius before he shouted Radiant light! and his body exploded with a brilliance unseen before.

The youma shrieked, releasing him to claw at its eyes and stagger backward, but he didn't want to let it go. Anger was something he rarely indulged in, but he'd seen Sagittarius, he knew Magellan was fighting something just like this, and it fueled him. Even though his sides sang with pain and what he could feel of his cheek was excruciating, he pushed forward.

He had nothing but his fists, but he beat on the youma, earning another scrape across his chest for his efforts as the beast attempted to shield its eyes with one arm, still shaking from the effect of the brightest senshi.

Leo did not, in fact, hear Sagittarius. He might have, had he not been focused so wholly on throwing everything he had at the youma. He was no fool; he knew his light, and the pain, would last for a time and then fade. He knew that the youma would have difficulty seeing after the attack, that it would make it easier to strike, would disorient the beast. He also knew that he was bleeding freely, and despite being a senshi, he was only a man. Only human.

Maybe his wounds would heal faster than a regular man's, but that didn't mean he couldn't die. Wouldn't bleed out if he didn't pace himself, but he didn't think of that. Didn't care about it as the broken half of his mask fell of his face, crunched under his boots. All he knew, all he cared about, was protecting his friends. Protecting those he loved.

In that moment, Sagittarius and Magellan were more than senshi. Sagittarius was even more than Jude, his somewhat-friend and reluctant comrade. They were impossibly precious to him, and he would have done anything to protect them.

Even, it seemed, whip around and shove Sagittarius to the ground, never breaking stride for a moment, while the light glimmered off his body. Stop, really? If he stopped, if he gave the youma even a moment --

But he had --

And the youma's claws raked through his jacket, fingers curled in the tattered fabric, and it shrieked and shoved him. He lost his footing, unable to even appreciate the decreased strength of the best as he was jerked aside like a broken marionette.

"Go!" How many times would he yell? Until his voice was raw. "God damn it, go!"

If Grayson Graves only followed directions sometimes, it could be said that Jude Lawson never listened.

Leo was beginning to feel a bit lightheaded, but he fought it with every fiber of his being as he struggled to maintain control in the battle. Everything happened at once, as it was wont to do in the midst of a struggle, and his reaction times weren't fast enough. The other youma was back, and he could see Magellan, blood streaming down her face, her eyes wild with the whites too large in a face going pale. He barely held her gaze a moment before he focused on crippled youma, driving his knee into its chest. When he got it on the ground, he beat its head viciously, pummeling until he couldn't feel his own knuckles.

"Go after Sagittarius!" He barked, the voice not entirely his own, and Magellan was off like a bullet. He rose, drove his foot as hard as he could into the youma's chest, and was rewarded by the sickening sensation of driving through its skin, black ooze pooling up and ribboning through the air.

Some splashed him in the face, mingling with the wounds and making him hiss, but he only stayed long enough to make certain its form was dissolving. Dead.

Then he was off again, gait slightly uneven as he sprinted, his hands pressed hard against his sides to stem the bleeding as best he could.

Really, he didn't know why he bothered. There were too many wounds, he didn't have enough hands.

But he tried, anyway, while his heart hammered in his chest, and his mind screamed for Jude and Dani.

Leo barely arrived on the scene in time to skid to a halt at the edge of the drop, arms pinwheeling uselessly as he attempted to catch himself, Sagittarius' voice echoing in his head. Leo.

At the last moment, he'd called for him, and --

And he tipped forward, nearly falling, when the jungle shimmered, skipped like a scene on a DVD that wasn't working quite properly. The scenery fell away and his wild eyes found Magellan, kicking the youma's head in with every ounce of strength her body contained. Alive, moving. She was fine, his head told him, even while his heart shouted that he couldn't see Sagittarius.

Because Sagittarius wasn't there.

It was Jude, on the ground. Jude, unmoving, his hair wet, chest still.

His vision blanked a moment, panic clawing down his throat and seizing his heart, rooting him in place while his mind whirled. His arms went up, hands outstretched, but he was blind to see where to stumble, couldn't even blink as he went forward and hit his knees.

Jude, he wanted to say.

He grasped at the pavement, hand shaking, as Magellan rushed by.

She skidded to the ground, hair flying behind her, and leaned her cheek to his mouth. Swore, loudly, and pressed a hand to his forehead, tipped his head back so that his mouth was open. She'd been trained -- Leo's numb mind could recognize that, even while all of his training flew out the window, the man at the mercy of his own fear. He watched numbly while Magellan's henshin dropped, she breathed into Jude's mouth, drew back, did so again.

And then she straightened, arms locked over his chest, and began to press down. Fast, shockingly fast, she pumped his chest, blood dripping from her forehead onto the backs of her hands.

Dani Rymner was trying to save Jude's life.

She was doing it while Leo crawled toward him, barely able to breathe over the pain in his body and the terror in his heart.

Silence reigned, though Leo would have been hard pressed to hear anything over the wild beating of his heart and the ragged, harsh quality of his breathing. Before him, he watched Jude jerk to life, cough violently to the side while Dani drew her arms back like they were inches from a pair of snapping jaws. She held her hands against her chest, watching with wide, worried eyes as his coughing subsided.

"I forgot your name."

Her shoulders jerked, like maybe she was going to cry. It was a quick motion, a startled one, and her hands flew to her mouth. But, no, she wasn't fighting back tears - it was a laugh. A slightly hysterical laugh, bubbling around the edges of her fingers, piercing the night with the giddy sort of relief that could only be felt by someone who had just flirted with death and won.

While she laughed, Leo's world slowly righted itself, and his henshin fell. Grayson Graves remained on his hands and knees, blood rapidly seeping into the turtleneck and jeans he'd donned before leaving the house, eyes trained desperately on the two figures before him.

Dani. Jude.

Alive.

She tossed her head back, brought a hand up to grip her injured shoulder, and between her gasping laughter, managed, "Dani. Dani, my name is Dani. I can't believe you forgot my name."

Then she turned, walking on her knees to Grayson, and hugged him. His entire body ached at the touch; it felt like his every wound was ripped open again as she crushed him against her, still laughing wildly, and he felt something wet on his cheek. Tears, after all.

And he was still sitting there, looking at Jude with the kind of shell-shocked horror that had claimed him since the moment his name had rang through the jungle, since the moment he'd failed to save him.

Having Jude fall unconscious again seemed to be what snapped Grayson out of his stricken reverie. He gently pushed Dani away, murmuring, "Jude." as he crawled over. Though the panic was leaving, he was surprised by the depth and intensity of the concern, the fear, the utter relief at seeing that Jude's chest was still rising and falling by its own power. After the beating Jude had taken, that was a blessing.

And good lord, if he wasn't careful, he was going to pass out right on top of him.

He began to shift his hands carefully under Jude's shoulders when Dani snapped at him, startling him enough that he stopped, fingers brushing the edge of the fabric.

"Don't move him!" She turned slightly, spoke into her cell phone. She'd remembered her cell phone? She was firing off directions, then sliding the phone shut and putting it away. "He totally got his a** kicked. You too, for that matter. Lie down."

She was fifteen, she was female, and she was bossy. Grayson protested, but Dani had taken the least damage of the three of them, and she used it to her advantage to make him sit, then lie down. He felt ridiculous, back to the pavement, gaze going blurry as he fought to stay above the metaphorical water. He'd been damaged more than he knew, body and mind, and the battle was taking its toll on him.

Sirens blared, and Dani wrung her hands, settling into the role of helpless female victim easily and smoothly. The hospital staff were going to get entirely too used to seeing her face.

Tires squealed, and she turned to face the paramedics, letting the tears she'd so viciously fought earlier flow freely as she went to meet them.