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“I sense something,” said Oenone abruptly, coming to a stop. They weren’t so much patrolling as taking an easy walk around the city, trying to work up to actually confronting a youma--something that hadn’t really worked out so well for him before. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t watching, every single Chaotic aura a string in his spine tweaked. Oenone. We’re waiting for you. He didn’t want to go back, or lose Tallulah again. He couldn’t.

Oenone reached out for her, pulled him back and close. “Why isn’t it moving,” he said. Had someone hurt a Lieutenant, killed them maybe?

This one, he could approach, he thought. Maybe he just needed to ease into the cold water, rather than throwing himself in wholesale? “Can we try this one,” he asked, flicking a glance at Europa. It would be her hauling his a** out of there if he freaked out, after all.

Every bone in his body was vibrating with his awareness of that Chaotic aura, not too far away and getting closer with every step he took. Bells jingled on the ends of his sleeves and he reminded himself, deep breath, because otherwise he wasn’t going to breath at all.

The doctor in him analyzed the lieutenant before the rest of him had even really processed what had happened. “Looks like it,” he said, and he stopped less than a step away. “Looks a little like--like her.” Avalon. He steeled himself and knelt next to the lieutenant, and with a pair of shaking fingers, lifted his chin.

That was really going too far, Melanite thought, and when he felt someone touch him he reacted instinctively, reaching up to smack their hand away. That, of course, pulled something in his chest--he was a painter, he knew the way muscles were connected as intimately as anyone could--and he curled around his ribs again, panting for breath. “Leave me alone,” he managed, through gritted teeth. “I am fine.”

Oenone flinched back, and took a deep breath before leaning in again. He was brave, he told himself; he would be fine. He would be the bare minimum of bravery and he would help this Negaverser, because he was better than Avalon. Oenone was better than Avalon, and he was not afraid.

Okay, he was terrified, he amended, staring at the lieutenant’s dark eyes. He took a breath, but it came shallow, like there was nothing there to breathe. “Your ribs,” he guessed. “They hit you there?”

“She kicked me, yes,” said Melanite, pushing himself a little more upright. “What does it matter to you, senshi?” Neither of them looked particularly like Jana. There was no guardian cat here for him to take his rage out on. Nothing he could do if they wanted him dead, and well, he’d been resigned to that for a good long while, hadn’t he? Since he watched his sister bleed out in front of him. Yes. Since then.

He said, “You are panicking. Am I so terrifying?” Shaking his head set the world spinning, and he caught his face with one hand to make it stop. The feeling made him distinctly nauseated, and he was focusing so deeply on that that he forgot to smack the male senshi’s hand away when another attempt was made to lift his hand.

Oenone looked him in the eyes--I am not afraid--and noticed, almost distantly, that the man’s pupils were literally two different sizes. “You’re concussed,” he said, slipping into his emergency-room tones with a bit of effort. “And you have broken ribs. Isn’t that so?”

There to help? He thought of Jana again. Irinei, go, she’d said. It bothered him that he couldn’t remember the color of her sweater, or her favorite way to drink coffee. He used to know that, didn’t he? Maybe. He went to stand up, pushing at the ground with his hands, but ended up toppling into the male senshi’s arms instead. “It is impossible to know where I stand with you senshi bitches,” he said, and it came across slurred even to him.

“That would be because we’re all different,” said Oenone, who at this point was still--he was still afraid, but not unreasoningly. This man was hurt, and needed help, and Babylon wouldn’t want to see him dead so Oenone would not make him dead. Babylon believed in the power of purification, as did Europa. Both of them were brilliant, intelligent, and wise. So he would believe in purification, too. “Let me help you sit up.”

He got the lieutenant up straight-like, sort of, and said, “How are you feeling? Light sensitivity? Any trouble breathing?” He looked to Europa, offered her a hand. He needed her to be there with him, right then. Despite all appearances, he was not okay; he was barely holding together. As the Lieutenant reached for Oenone’s shoulder, Oenone tried very hard not to flinch away, and failed.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m afraid of you.”

“Why,” asked Melanite, returning his grip to his ribs, keeping them roughly in the places where they were meant to be--roughly. “Stupid purple knight,” he grumbled, as the senshi fished beneath his collar for. For something bright and he held up both hands to block the light. “Put that away!”

“Light sensitivity,” confirmed Oenone grimly, tucking his Light of Babylon away. “My name’s Oenone, Lieutenant. I used to be called Spinel. I’m going to help you, alright?”

One-handed, he couldn’t do as much as he wanted as fast as he wanted it done. He wanted to get away from the Lieutenant, get clear of this disaster, and go home to sit in the shower and--sit in the shower and maybe cry. Maybe. But he was a doctor, wasn’t he, and there was always a chance that this lieutenant could be redeemed. Babylon had believed in Spinel, and he’d gotten free. Oenone just… he just had to pass that faith on. He returned the squeeze of his wife’s fingers, turned his head sideways to kiss her fingertips, and reached out to get a second look at the lieutenant’s eyes.

“A few weeks,” said Melanite, watching Europa warily. He did believe the one in green wasn’t going to lift a hand to hurt him--the one in green was shaking, he could feel it. Anyway, it seemed so much longer than a few weeks. Jana had been dead for ever. Hadn’t she? His head spun when he tried to think about it, and he put a hand over the side of his face that had collided so violently with the ground. “If it is a concussion, there’s nothing you can do here,” he said. He knew how to take care of himself… he thought. Maybe?

It didn’t matter. “What is your game,” he asked, not noticing the way Oenone’s brow furrowed at the nigh-drunken slur of his voice. “You are senshi. You want us dead.” Or, no. Hadn’t Jana. Jana had… what had she done? “********,” he said on an exhale. He didn’t remember.

That seemed backwards. Melanite blinked, tried to focus on something, but everything had gone ever so slightly blurry. He took a deep, unsteady breath, but it brought up something dark and bilious in him--he pressed a hand over his mouth and Oenone said, “Definitely concussed. Is there somewhere safe we can take you?”

Why did they care? Some devoushka and her… her boy toy, most like, the way the man’s hand closed on air rather than accepting the woman’s touch had gone. Something in the eyes. He remembered that feeling. Melanite closed his eyes for a moment, but it only made the world spin more intensely. “I am not stupid,” he said.

“No, you’re not,” agreed Oenone. Ordinarily, he wouldn’t want to move someone with a possible neck injury--but if this was where he had been hurt, Melanite would be dead now. He doubted anyone who’d do this much damage in what looked like two hits would leave someone alive. “Hospital?” He looked to Europa for guidance, lifted the ungainly, awkward form of the collapsed lieutenant and hoped he didn’t look as queasy as he felt, having a Negaverser so close to his starseed.

No one could fake a concussion that well, he assured himself. “Order isn’t a monolith,” he said. “Some of us’re gonna want you dead. Others are gonna… be… us.” The power of purification, right? God, he hoped this paid off in the end.

Melanite shrugged. He didn’t have a particular desire to stay where he was, so, whatever. Also, this was confusing, and he was confused, and… why were they… Too many puzzles and not enough brain power to answer them.

Taking the agent’s silence for an answer, Oenone nodded firmly to Europa. “Let’s,” he said. He personally could not wait to get clear of the agent.