Merlinite had been on patrol, as per usual. He thought the night was going to shape up to be perfectly normal, but he supposed there was no such thing. He had not expected to find a woman on the street, badly wounded, or bring her back to his place, of all the stupid decisions to make, instead of to the hospital where she desperately needed to go.

And yet that was what happened.

He now had a bloody, broken woman laying on his sofa, and it was only through sheer luck that he had been able to find her.

”Please… I’m a general… please…

Merlinite doubted he would ever get her voice out of his head now. It had been so pitiful, so pained. He knew her, once she said her name, though the glamour that protected them from being recognized lifting at her admission. General Painite. He had seen her in action before, quite a few times, and heard even more stories. She was a fighter, but he had never expected to see her after losing a battle so badly. Whatever had happened, whoever had done this to her, it had to be an insane battle.

The evidence of it was good enough. There was a ton of damage in the area, and that was what had drawn him over. He heard the rumbling boom of a building falling, and since nothing had exploded he had assumed it was the auras he felt in the area. By the time he reached it, though, all the White Moon auras, including the very powerful one, had vanished. In fact, there had been no auras at all once he arrived, and he assumed the battle had ended and everyone was gone. Then he found her, crumpled and broken, and she looked up at him with glossy, distant eyes that filled with pain and fear as they settled on him.

Painite… I’m Painite…

He felt his heart drop into his stomach at her condition, and panic rose up in its place. He wanted to take her to the hospital but she told him not to, begged him not to. He could not understand it, but he was compelled to listen to her. Now she was on his sofa, and he was terrified that was where she was going to die.

Finishing gathering up some supplies, whatever he could find around his house, and a bowl of water, Dennis, powered down now, moved back into his living room and kneeled down next to Painite. Well, Gently, he supposed, as he found her ID in her pocket and learned her civilian name. She was barely conscious, breathing heavily but in shallow gasps, and he could hear the pain in each breath. It seemed like a lot of effort to do something that was supposed to be natural, and he felt bad just watching her.

He was out of his depth. He had no way of helping her.

If only he had managed to make more friends. He needed someone that could help him, someone that could heal or knew more about medicine than he did. Why would she not want to go to a hospital?! And why was he stupid enough to believe her and listen to her when she said no? He was still scared of her, by reputation, and if she did recover, he did not want to be the one that had angered her by ignoring her order. And that was what it was, right? She was still a General, and he was still a Captain…

But she was dying. He was sure of it.

Being as gentle as he knew how, he took a damp cloth and began to dab helplessly at some of the blood on her face. She seemed to be covered in blood, cuts and bruised from all over, and of course there were some very serious injuries to worry about. He was just trying to bandage what he could, clean up whatever he could to at least help stave off infection, but he doubted he was going to make any real difference. It looked like she had taken some really serious injuries, internal and external, and he had no idea how to help her.

Her eyes opened slowly and she looked at him, pain filling her gaze. It was hard for her to just be conscious, let alone try to move. He offered her a timid smile.

“You’re going to be okay, I’m going to help you, okay?”

“No… hospital…”

“I know… but… I mean, you look really bad and… and I don’t know what I’m doing! I need to get you to someone who does, General!” He looked upset, panic seizing control of his better judgement, but Gently could only slowly shake her head at him. Her eyes faded and then fluttered closed, consciousness slipping from her again.

This was stupid. He was going to sit there and watch her die at this rate, and he just could not face something like that. It was not in him, to watch anyone, especially not someone from his team, suffer like this. He was a bad guy, sure, and he didn’t mind stepping on other people to get to the top, but this was different. He was gaining nothing from this: he was not even involved. He hardly knew her and now he had to watch her life end?

No, there had to be something more he could do.

This was not something he knew about, but there were people out there who knew more. He would go out there, he would find someone to help him. It meant leaving Gently alone in the house, and he could only hope he did not come back to find her dead, but he was going to take the risk for her sake. If he didn’t, the outcome would be no different, anyway.

He gently took her hand in his, holding it and looking at her, this relative stranger he suddenly found himself so completely invested in. It was funny, how fast priorities changed. She was his whole focus now, his world, and she did not even know who he was.

“I’m going to go get help. You’re going to be okay. Just hold on until I get back, okay? I need you to hold on.”