Someone could be heard speaking quietly, in scolding tones, and those tones were followed by a solid but soft pawed -thump- as something hit the floor and then silence, a long pause of just music and soft sounds against the ache of injuries and whatever anxiety of a strange place might raise… before an familiar voice yelled.
“SHES AWAKE!! I HEAR HER BREATHING!!!”
“.... Absynthe….” came the furious rebuttal.
~~~
There was no knowing how long she had been laying there unconscious, her senses enveloped in that blissful darkness where nothing else existed. No pain or suffering, only the knowledge that when she had finally succumbed to the elements she had not been alone.
Simply seeing Abby, even if it had only been a figment of her imagination, gave Phedre the peace of mind and the ability to accept her given fate. A fate that was destined to be denied by one of the few people who had the ability to keep the reaper at bay.
For some time she lingered along the edge of a deep sleep but the quiet murmurs of a conversation nearby finally caused her to stir. Phedre had tried to ignore the gentle yet earnest tugging of someone eagerly waiting for her to wake up in favor of more rest by adjusting her position on the bed but the sudden shouting had been so abrupt and unexpected that she could not help but open her eyes.
It was like being woken up by a fire alarm, startling and disorienting enough to caused her heartbeat to quicken in an almost painful way.
Phedre groaned as she tried to roll over onto her side so she could sit up. “Abby…?” Eyebrows knitted together in utter confusion she glanced around the unfamiliar room looking for the tiny bob-tailed mauvian. Warm opulent decor accentuated by the well cared for brick walls made the space feel oddly inviting but at the same time almost terrifying because it was so unlike the last place she remembered being.
~~~
Footsteps, soft steps approaching, cautiously over the well worn floor.
“Phedre?” Zac’s voice, Zinkenite’s voice. “Phedre, how are you feeling? You’re… safe, sorry, It’s a strange place I know, but it’s safe I promise.”
He kept a respectful distance, hands open and spread to either side as though to establish he had nothing in them.
“We, ...when Absinthe brought your condition to my attention, I sent for...help. Since it wasn’t strictly safe to send you to the hospital with a distinguishing wound I thought, better to bring you somewhere well guarded.” He said quietly.
“Do you need, pain killers? Water?”
~~~
This isn’t real, he- they aren’t real. How could her mind be so cruel as to show her such things? A final reminder of what life could have been had she not of made such a stupid mistake. why?
“Abby…” Phedre’s lips moved but not a sound was made as she closed her eyes and drew in a short, calming breath to stymie the tears that threatened to fall. The last memory she had was of the little mauvian, a look of worry in her emerald green eyes before the pristine white winter wonderland was devoured by night.
Ashamed by what happened, when she finally found the courage to open her eyes Phedre found it to be a struggle to so much as glance over to where Zac now stood. Instead she bowed her head, instantly feeling the tightness in her neck strain against the bruise on her shoulder that traveled down her back to where the real injuries lay.
“I’m sorry…” She whispered. Her gaze transfixed on an arbitrary pattern stitched on the comforter.
~~~
A small paw planted against her lips. “No.”Abby said, in quite possibly the most succinct moment in her life. “No sorry… shush, we eat sorries, and they are not tasty, put them away.”
“Water then.” Zac said carefully… “Or...no, ice chips.” He said looking thoughtful. “I’ll order food when you feel you might be able to eat.” He added.
“I’d offer to cook but, I have a limited repertoire and little time to fix that.”
“He lies.” Abby said chattily, sitting on the bed beside Phedre, small chin against the pillow.
“He just finds other things to do, he used to hate cats too, I know...now he’s adopted some. They are hiding because stranger is you, but it’s alright, I am the best one anyhow.”
There was some… hammering sounds from the kitchen, alarming but they sounded like there was some attempt to muffle the effects.
“Ice chips!” Abby said gleefully. “And it’s not take out!”
Zac returned moments later with a small plastic cup, filled with small bits of ice. “Sorry… I didn’t feel a freezer that produced these on its own was quite… worth it.” He winced, looking like he was re-considering that stance.
~~~
“Thank you,” Phedre’s voice sounded hoarse as she reached out with a shaky hand to accept the cup.
“They didn’t use me as a decoy did they?” Carefully she set the cup down on the bed and turned slightly to the side so she could pick up Abby and set the mauvian in her lap. The barest of smiles tugged the corner of her dry lips but it was not an emotion meant to last and left just as quickly. “Nobody came after you-” she looked up at Zac then, “either of you right?”
~~~
He rolled one shoulder in something like a half shrug.
“... if it was the same ones who attacked you, that showed up when I did, then they most assuredly regret their choices. Perhaps not as much as I might have liked, but there were other priorities.” He waved a hand gently at her before moving to pull up a chair.
“Back injuries, are… really quite awful.” He conceded, the tone in his voice hinting at something like personal experience. But maybe that wasn’t shocking. He’d been part of things long enough to reach his rank as general sovereign.
~~~
So they had been following her.
Phedre sat in silence for several seconds, her eyes moving in a way that suggested she was either recounting memories or trying to fit pieces of the puzzle together without much success. “I just- I just wanted to get away. But I was scared,” She paused worrying her lower lip as she reached up to wipe away the unshed tears.
“I’m sorry- I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt.” It’s why I didn’t call for help. Why I tried to run away. Phedre tried to give reason to her actions but found little solace in her choice. The cost for help was too great and though she knew Arabia would have shown up if she had reached out, but it was not worth it to put his life at risk as well.
Then Abby showed up, sweet Abby… She had tried to tell the little one to run or wanted to, at this point she wasn’t entirely sure what happened. Absently Phedre stroked the mauvians back, reassuring herself that the cat who had claimed her was safe and well.
~~~
“I am not hurt, nor is Abby, I suspect they wanted bigger fish than say, a cat, but they weren’t expecting the size of the fish that they landed.” He said quietly.
“Most… general Sovereigns don’t risk going out that much after all. It’s...hard to mask a signature like ours, just ask Abby.”
Abby for her part, squinted her eyes, lifted her chin, and...well, also her butt and stubby tail with every stroke, especially when Phedre bumped her little tail nub.
“He wanted a good hunt, but he toyed with them, for someone who likes cats he plays like one VERY well. They did NOT like the smoke. I thought it was -funny- though.” She chirped contentedly.
“Ohhh there! MmmMmmmmmm” which more or less derailed her from any conversation in a fit of purring.
~~~
“Most…”
“But you’re not like most are you?” It’s a thought she had once before but never really gave voice to. Even if she knew then what she knew now, Phedre wouldn’t have even contemplated calling Zinkenite for assistance. For all the flirting she had done when they had officially met the first time there was one thing she did truly feel; that the King was to be protected not the other way around.
And yet he came anyway. Consequences be damned and though he may never tell her what actually happened she still could not fathom his reasoning for choosing to put himself at risk.
“Why? Why save me…” She let out an almost bitter laugh though it was most definitely not directed at him. “I’m a nobody, a corrupt who doesn’t seem to care much about personal spaces.” That’s what got her into this mess in the first place, that prideful arrogance Arabia had accused her of having.
But that wasn’t the real question she wanted to ask.
Unable or unwilling to meet his gaze, Phedre cast her eyes downward “Why watch over me…?” Her voice was no higher than a whisper as if she were ashamed to ask. Zinkenite… he could have assigned the task to anyone but he was the one here when she woke up, not some unfamiliar face.
~~~
“We are, none of us are the same.” He said with a small inclination of his head. “We all have something that sets us apart from one and other. Though I’m sure that our rank makes us … harder to scrutinize in a way. I’m sure there are assumptions that if someone voiced, I could try and put aside.”
For the rest of her question though, he looked away, took a breath and leaned back in the chair.
“Because, for all that we, as General Sovereign, are … rare, and easy to target, we are still strong. For me at least, I spent too much time directing from the shadows, there are just… there are times when I would rather step forward and defend my people. That’s something I don’t think I will ever give up, because that is part of… at least as I understand it, why I… why I become what I am today. If I hadn’t had people who relied on me, and whom I was in turn willing to defend, to put aside my interests for, to see them grow rather than… I don’t know, trying to maneuver for rank, I think I, myself would never have been considered. So here I am, doing the best I know how. I’m not perfect, far from it, but I rather wonder if that isn’t the truth of all of us. Being perfect would… would raise too many questions.”
~~~
For the first time since waking up Phedre actually found herself smiling. His answer actually resonated within in her in some odd sort of way. Before she had thought it was kind of silly how agents and corrupts kept swearing loyalty to a General King or Queen and at the time it felt fake. As if they were just vying for favors of some sort.
But now, she understood why some did it.
“I owe you both my life.” And it was a debt she knew that could never fully be repaid.
~~~
“And I owe my life too many others.”
He said and gave a small tip of his head. “Someday, I believe you’ll have the opportunity to save someone else. Not, today obviously. Right now you’re just to get better, and if you know the names of the people whom were so interested in you, well. I’d love to see them added to the records. I imagine that they won’t be too pleased to be hunted, not the way they were hunting us.”
His fist clenched for a moment. “Too many think it a one sided game, where they can hunt, torture and abuse us without consequence.” There was a darkness in his tone, a rolling fury.
~~~
Several moments passed as Phedre sat in silence, even without being powered she could feel the anger and frustration almost rolling off of him from where she sat.
“I’m sorry, other than a vague description there’s nothing else I can give. If they said their names I don’t remember what they were.” Parts of her memory were still blacked out, gaps in the sequence of events that had happened the night before. “But I could probably point them out if I ever saw them again.”
“Zac…” Phedre shifted her gaze over to the cups of ice chips she had set on the bed. “The day we officially met… outside the restaurant. I noticed something when you powered up.” For a second she paused, worrying her lower lip as if she were contemplating changing the topic to something else but ultimately decided there probably wouldn't be a more appropriate time to ask. “ Your hand was different. Did they-”
Deep blue eyes glanced back over to where he sat, she studied the scars on his face before her gaze fell to the arm in question. “Did they do that to you?”
~~~
He hesitated, blinking, drawn back into the moment in surprise by the question before ducking his head slightly and giving a soft laugh.
“.. I, hmm… That’s harder to answer I admit.” He said softly before holding out his hand.
“Here… touch it, it might just raise more questions, but to answer at least part of your question, yes, It’s missing. I have a… I have a crystal that makes it look human when I’m not in uniform. It was thought that, it would be a good addition to the glamor that protects us. It’s ...rather fancy for a prosthetic after all.”
~~~
Perhaps it was the lightheadedness caused by the blood loss or simply because she had only woken up a few minutes ago. But there really was no hope in hiding the blush that swept across her face and turned the tips of her ears a lovely shade of pink when he had unexpectedly offered to let her touch his hand.
Her movements were slow as she lifted her hand from where it had been resting in her lap. However, as she reached out, Phedre hesitated. Sitting there on his bed there was no hints of that self assured forward corrupt he had met on the streets of Destiny City. The woman who would have under any other circumstance taken his hand and said or done something questionable if only to tease him just a bit. No, that person was gone, for now at least while she took time to heal and reflect on the events that had recently taken place.
When finally she touched his hand, Phedre blinked a few times in surprise. It really was just an elaborate glamor. Although not as cold as a street lamp outside, the warmth she had expected to feel was absent and though the technology he had mentioned gave his hand the visual appearance of having skin, upon touching him it was surprisingly as smooth as metal.
It was more so out of curiosity when she turned his hand over to feel the ridges on the back of his hand, the structure itself felt real enough; knuckles, joints, carpal bones… They all felt real enough but when she touched his wrist, Zac’s heartbeat was missing...
~~~
He flexed the hand slightly at her touch, like someone might react if a touch felt strange, just, curiously natural motions.
It made the joints strange to the touch when he flexed his knuckles. The necessary flexibility in the joints made the joints of the knuckles more obvious.
“If I powered up, you’d see it as it is, but then people would know where my apartment is, or at least that a General King signatured had appeared approximately here. Both of which I’d prefer to avoid.”
He shrugged, as though it didn’t matter, though the tension in his shoulders said it did, at least a little.
“When You’re part of this long enough, I suppose it's inevitable that you have a few scars.”
He flexed his other hand it made the metal one seem more strangely perfect by comparison. There were scars on it, fine lines on his knuckles to a blast that vanished up his sleeve, an off color that suggested a burn.
~~~
Without thinking, Phedre absently reached out to take ahold of his other hand as well, a motion she near immediately regretted. Until now the simple act of breathing had been a discomfort in and of itself, only controlled by keeping her breaths shallow; manageable but the pain was not easily ignored.
However the way her body tensed when her upper torso turned ever so slightly was enough to cause Phedre’s eyes to squeeze shut and lips purse into a thin line while she held her breath until the sharp sensation subsided. Dear Lord… A quiet whimper escaped her when she finally exhaled. Ow...?
It took a minute for her to gather herself before finally opening her eyes again, and what she saw, or rather felt, brought with it emotions she had only really experienced once before; the day she herself had hunted the senshi that had hurt Arabia. Same as before she felt both sad and angry at the same time. One hand cold yet perfect, the other marred yet warm, both evidence of terrible things that had happened and while she desperately wanted to know what caused such scars, it wasn't her place to ask such things.
“Promise me…” she finally said after some time. “I want you to promise that you won't put yourself into harm's way again, not for me.”
“They may not have been expecting you this time, Zac, but now that they know you came once they would be fools to not be ready for you next time. I-” Phedre's hands trembled as she held onto his. “I can't let you get hurt, or to carry the scars of my mistakes.”
“I'll find a way to get stronger, I promise. Just please…” There was an amount of desperation in her voice as she looked at him pleadingly.
~~~
He closed his eyes and took a breath.
“I can’t promise that, you’re under my care, and it would be irresponsible of me to do so.”
He raised a hand, clearly anticipating protest.
“However.” He said pointing one finger skyward to emphasize his point. “I will promise, to be careful, I can teleport a great deal more often, and over greater distances than most officers, a privilege of rank after all. I’ve still the ability to run if I need to, and, I can if I must, call other officers and even Youma to my aid.”
He nodded, firmly as though that were the end of it.
~~~
Just as he had predicted she was, in fact, about to continue arguing her side but quickly snapped her mouth shut when he effectively silenced her with a mere motion of his hand. Eventually she conceded after Zac finished explaining his reasoning, this was not an argument she could win.
Not that she anticipated something like this happening again but it did somewhat strengthened her resolve. If anything it just meant that she had to take better precautions and well… do as she did this last time and not call for help if she got over her head.
With a sigh she relinquished his other hand and bowed her head in defeat. “If you really can’t be swayed to change your mind then please.”
“Please tell me what I can do, what I need to do so I’m no longer a liability or hinderance to anyone…”
~~~
He gives a small huffing laugh, though there is no bitterness in that sound. There is if anything a tiredness that whispers of age beyond his years.
“Then simply, be careful, and grow stronger. It is after all, possible to do both.” He murmured.
“It may not seem possible, not at this time, but it is possible. There were those I think who likely doubted that I would ever become what I am, but here we are, and here is where you begin. You’re going to need to have faith in yourself, because starting there helps you have greater faith in others.
~~~
For several moments Phedre remained silent as she contemplated his unexpected advice.
“Faith…”
She had faith in herself and her own abilities which was misplaced in this particular circumstance. Overconfident was the word she had heard spoken of her before. The encounter had started out as any other but quickly dissolved once she had been lured away from the crowd. However that was where her faith had ended.
Despite having been conscripted into joining the Negaverse nearly two years ago she hadn't really connected with anyone other than Arabia and Valeria, both corrupts like her. All other agents were simply nameless faces to court with from time to time when she needed a lift to the Dark Kingdom or to turn in a quota in to. Perhaps that was where her biggest flaw layed she really had no faith in others.
“I’ll try to work on it. “ It wasn't a change that would happen overnight, that much she knew.
Absently Phedra resumed petting Abby's soft fur. Her purring was like white noise tugging her consciousness back into that blissful sleep. “Would it be ok if i napped here for a little while longer. Before I head home?” The last thing she wanted was to impose on him any more than she already was. Zac’s hospitality was generous but the last thing she wanted was to overstay her welcome.
~~~
“As long as you need.” He said gently. “I’ll make sure that you have something to eat and drink when you wake up as well.” He said and reached over to pet Abby, who did a rapid circle and lay down over one ankle and started purring.
“Purring is healing, they did studies” She announced before squinting her eyes shut and purring with profound determination.
~~~
You’re such a sweetie. In all honesty the sentiment extended to both of them really.
A weak smile tugged the corners of her dry lips. “Thank you,” Phedre’s voice had quieted considerably but she was fairly certain both had heard. Carefully she laid back and shifted her position so she rested on her ‘good side’ rather than putting weight on her back.Just a small nap was all she had planned but without her phone she couldn’t set an alarm to wake her up.
Endejester
Follow up to Fading Fast
