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Broken didn’t even begin to cover what Acubens was. Beaten and bloody and sliced from head to toe, sure, but there was something deeper. Something inside of her cracked under the weight and suddenly she was sort of free falling. She hadn’t expected Bischofite to be that strong. She hadn’t expected him to have grown to general. She hadn’t expected him to be anything other than a coward. And yet he had handed her a** to her on a silver platter, all the while smirking at her as she lay, battered and ripped apart on the concrete.

Lesath.

Acubens needed Lesath. She would know what to do. She would help get her somewhere, anywhere that wasn’t a hospital. Even if it was just to a first aid kit. Anything was better than her eye swollen half shut and her split and cracked lips.

Lesath.

She was here somewhere, right? She patrolled the park, Acubens was moderately certain of that fact. Or was it Remarque who patrolled the park? Leto? While finding any of her favorite trio would be welcome, it was Lesath she really wanted to fall onto in that moment. Lesath was the only one who had truly seen her fall apart. Lesath would know what to do with her beaten raptor. She did last time, right? When Lesath talked about home and Acubens couldn’t keep herself together anymore and cried and cried until her throat hurt and her eyes burned. Lesath had held her close and kept her safe until Acubens was able to venture back out into that good night.

Lesath.

Acubens uncovered a mirror after several long moments of searching. She smeared blood on the glass on accident, and dribbled more besides that. When she tried to form the name, only incoherent garbles came out. Acubens hadn’t realized just how extensive the damage her to face had been until then. Again, she tried Lesath’s name no no avail. A third time with tears in her eyes. Over and over until she slumped to the ground and rested on ruined knees and sprained ankles, weakly thumping the frame with blistered fists.

Acubens jumped visibly when the voice sounded behind her. She should have recognized the girl. Something about a mall stuck out to her in her grief stricken and half aware state. But as soon as the thought passed into her mind it slipped away. She blinked owlishly, her face streaming with blood from wounds she could no longer find the origins of. It took another whole minute or so for Acubens to gather herself and stammer out some kind of greeting. She tried to stand, but she’d twisted her ankle at some point and so fell back onto her knees, grunting at the impact. Still, she made valiant attempts to make herself look presentable. She wiped her nose on the back of her hand, a mixture of mucus and blood streaking the back of it.

“Oh, um…” she straightened her fuku, smoothed out her hair, and tried to stand again, this time with much more success.

“Yes. I-I mean no but…” She finally forced a smile, swollen left cheek aching at the movement.

“But it’s nothing that I haven’t been through before. We terrorists we… we tend to get banged around.” She laughed mirthlessly, wiping another streak of blood from a bruise.

“Do you have… um… a first aid kit or… something?”

Acubens winced at the idea of an ambulance. No, there was no way that would turn out well for anyone. Nor would getting into a car with the civilian. That would just attract attention to them both, and worse make an innocent bystander a target. No. Acubens had to power down and limp to a hospital herself.

Just maybe… not right now.

At the civilian’s suggestion that maybe standing was a horrible idea, Acubens nodded, sliding down against the looking glass behind her. Without her legs wobbling and threatening to give out, the world stopped tilting. She should have sat down sooner, she lamented, running her broken hand through tangled and filthy hair. Her stomach still roiled and clenched, leaving her feeling hollow but hey, maybe it was better if Lesath didn’t see her so busted up. Acubens had already caused her so much pain, it was a wonder she even wanted to see her again. Or did she? Was Acubens just presuming again? Was she taking the senshi of moths, once again, for granted?

“I’m fine,” she finally ground out, head falling back against the mirror behind her. “I just need to rest for a little while. Then I’ll go find someone who can help me. Just as soon as… everything stops spinning, you know?”

Suddenly Acubens was moving. Or rather… being moved. She didn’t have the where-with-all to really understand what was happening let alone fight it until her head rested on the girl’s lap. Her eyes opened blearily, her mind trying to work through the fog of battle fatigue and pain to process what had just happened. Instead of leaving her in a broken and bloody heap, someone had not only sat next to her, but soothe her. And Acubens was too tired to even fight her. So she allowed herself to be maneuvered into position, allowed herself to be calmed and soothed with the hands of a stranger. Allowed the stranger to put herself in harm’s way to keep her company. And she was too tired to even wonder why.

“Well,” she chuckled, her chest feeling too tight. “If whoever is hunting me comes along you should probably just get lost. He won’t think twice about killing you if only because it’ll be fun.”

Raven. Had Acubens heard that name before? It tickled something way in the back of her skull but it was easily ignored. She was probably imagining things again. And why not? She was already half awake as it was, and this was probably just part of a dream she was in the middle of having.

“Thanks,” she muttered, her legs feeling a little more like rocks and her arms feeling a little more like they didn’t exist at all. “Bischofite,” she let slip somewhere between wakefulness and sleep. “Fought Bischofite. Got m’a** handed to me.” As though this girl would know who Bischofite even was.

"M'Acubens, by th'way."

Everyone either hated or loved Acubens’ curls in equal measure. Acubens included. And it varied from day to day. But she laughed breathily at the compliment, trying to ignore the ache in her shoulder where the chakram had embedded itself in her collar bone. She tried not to shift, but the ground was so hard and it was hard to find some position that didn’t hurt everything. With each motion, Acubens’ breathing hitched in her throat until she finally found a position she could exist in. She stared up at Raven as the girl ran through what Acubens assumed were either options for conversation or for aide. Acubens didn’t press her. Soon enough, Acubens’ magical girl qualities would heal her enough so that she could pull herself into the free clinic and grab some pain meds. Givena few days of regular patrolling and exposure to whatever magic healed her, Acubens would be golden in less than a week.

But it didn’t stop her from dreading the time between then and now.

When Raven did speak, Acubens laughed again.

“Try being the operative word. I’m not doing a very good job of it, unfortunately. Lucky for you there are better senshi than me looking out for this city.”

It didn't feel like trying was enough. Hell, it didn't even feel like trying was the bare minimum. She'd tried tonight and failed. She failed right off the edge of a church, as a matter of fact. Just the thought of it sent a flush of shame straight to her face and caused the nerves along both of her wounds to panic and fray. She hissed, trying to readjust herself for the millionth time in that moment alone before finally settling for the least painful position possible.

Still, as uncomfortable and miserable as she was, it was good to have someone appreciate her. It wasn't Lesath, but it felt damn close. It even smelled like her. Acubens could feel the heat in her eyes as she shut the world out and focused on the smell of the woman she'd abandoned and then called back to her countless times. Like some doll Acubens thought she could toy with. And now Lesath might be gone forever and there was nothing Acubens could do about it. Except pretend. If she shut her eyes extra tight and focused extra hard she was with Lesath again. And Lesath was stroking her hair and Acubens was falling in love with her all over again like the romantic idiot that she was.

She wanted to lay there forever. With her head in the lap of a stranger who told her she was valued wrapped up in the scent of the woman she loved. She could have, even. Except for that twinge of chaos off in the distance. Like someone knew she was weak and ready to be killed off. Acubens lifted her head, lamenting the action as pain soared through her mirrored injuries.

"Someone's coming," she groaned, eyes fighting to stay open.

"Go, run. If they find you, there's no guaranty you won't be killed. Times are changing and the real terrorists are getting cruel."

Acubens stumbled to her feet, reopening several wounds in the process. By the time she could finally hold herself up, the feeling was just around the corner. It would be here any moment, and could not find this civilian.

"Don't you worry your pretty head about me, either. I may not look like it, but I got this, okay?"

Those words. Acubens had heard them before. From a woman who smelled the same and who touched her the same way. Acubens' eyes felt too hot as she stood as well and as straight as she could. She swayed slightly as the breeze took advantage of her weakness and pulled her this way and that as though she were a sapling in it's grasp. And she might as well have been. She always had been, right? Ever green as the day she'd been awakened, never learning any lessons like there are people out there who want to kill you and Lesath, present or no, will always do strange things to you.

Though not as strange as the girl she'd just met.

Before Acubens could say a word of thanks for the kind stranger who seemed to taken with the skirted raptor, she found her lips otherwise occupied. And then her hands followed suit, grasping the woman's face with a kind if desperation Acubens hadn't allowed herself to feel in a long time. And it translated through her kiss int he way she artlessly moved her mouth against the woman's. Like she could draw some kind of life force through that kiss if she press hard enough against her or sucked hard enough on her lower lip.

When the girl left her, Acubens was dizzier than before and unsure of the ground she stood on. Her hands still held the air in the shape of that strange and wonderful woman's face as she departed, leaving only the scent of a woman she would kiss as vehemently if granted permission.

"I love you," she confessed to the night, forgetting about the chaos closing in on her until he was upon her and Acubens was forced to flee as well.