epidemiology | Respect is earned

CHARACTERS: Serene Charlord and Olivia CLOSED
DATE: Near the end of Time Travel week
WARNINGS: Blood and maiming
SUMMARY: Serene has been terribly injured by Meallan and Olivia must save her life.

The only thing keeping Serene on her feet as she stumbles through the courtyard is her conviction that Meallan will somehow shake off the burns she's given him and come racing after her again to cut her down. She's dropped her spear, her sword arm is broken and useless and it's taking all of her energy to keep on her feet; if he comes, she will be helpless.

She's not ready to die, no, not like this, not choking on terror, not when her people teach that death brings about the total dissolution of all consciousness back into the soil. She keeps her hand clamped over her wound, sobbing with each breath as she stumbles into a cool and shaded doorway.

She doesn't make it far inside before she sinks down against a stone wall, wheezing as tries and fails to force herself back onto her feet

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"No, nowhere..." Her hand tightens on Olivia's again, for now that she's feeling that magic there's no way shed be able to pull away. She's too weak a person but... "Olivia, it's not safe!"

Her strength is coming back to her. She scrabbles at the floor with her foot before getting a grip on the floor, fully intending to push herself up to drag the pair of them away. The effort is making her heart race faster once more.

Olivia's hands rise, hastily pressing down over Serene's arms in an effort to still her. "Serene — please!" There is desperation in her tone, sharpened by something that almost borders on impatience. In her haste, there accidentally comes a flare of magic from her, possibly a touch unpleasant as opposed to the gentle streaming she had settled on just a few seconds ago.

"It won't take much longer," she promises, quickly working now to fix and seal the wound, lest all that blood she'd just refilled go to waste. Dimly, she is aware that there might be a threat looming nearby... but if it hadn't found them yet, then it won't find them for another moment longer so long as they keep out of the way and quiet.

One of her hand comes up to gently cup the woman's cheek, coaxing their eyes to meet. Two different shades of purple.

"Just trust me... okay?" And while she speaks, the ruined skin seals up, good as new. Now onto those bones...

She huffs and keeps hold of Olivia's gaze, shuddering at the sensation of healing. It's not pain exactly, but it's a sensation in a painful area that's pushing the limits of her self-control hard. She doesn't realise there are tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.

"Trust... I trust you." What choice does she have? She trusts her to continue healing, but can she trust her if Meallan emerges? There's a wild hope boiling in Serene that they'd be able to escape unscathed, for now she's growing stronger and Olivia isn't growing faint. She might be able to walk if Olivia held her weight, though she knows that with her broken bones the pain will be fierce enough to make her want to vomit.

There is a heavy iron sword hanging from Olivia's hip should there be need for it. While it's true she hasn't dedicated as much of her training to the sword as she has to her healing, she is no slouch on a battlefield, and will use it to her advantage if necessary.

Thankfully, there does not seem any need for it just yet. Good for Olivia, who can then keep her focus on mending those broken bones now, the collarbone first, to ease in the breathing, then the arm after. Good for Serene, who can keep her heartbeat measured, and her wits about her.

And now it seems alright for Olivia to question: "What happened..?"

"Meallan." She squeezes her eyes shut, for everything feels scattered by her shock. "He's... possessed? Infected? I don't know, but he is crazed. He's covered in red."

"I burnt him. I set his face alight. I killed him, for he was killing me." He hasn't come yet, though he'd charged at her like one of those raging bugs, so he must be dead? Relief and guilt war in her at that thought, sending her pulse up again. She moans at the pain in her setting bones.

"Meallan?"

For a second Olivia thinks she doesn't even hear the other woman properly. She knows of Meallan, of course, but only from her small interactions with him. She remembers a rather mild-mannered young man, even in his fear and pain of having one of those awful vines creep under his skin. Even as she cut it out and healed him, he had kept a steady head, and even thought to ask her if she was alright. It's hard for her to picture him as this beast that Serene describes, though she knows that there is not faking this fear in her.

She tries not to get distracted, but the thought that he might be out there, dead, worries her. She hastens her healing magic, thinking she gets out there in time — then maybe...

"There," she says, with only just a bit of sweat along her brow. "Get up, and get to someplace safe, alright?" She stands, already turning towards where Serene had come from.

That last burst of magical healing was painfully intense and Serene is gasping by the time Olivia stands. She's still shivering with hurt, but when she clenches her fist she can do so with ease and there's no shooting pain. She clamps her hand to her shoulder, cringing at her congealing blood, but her skin is whole. Even pressing her fingers in elicits no twinge of pain from the area.

Olivia's already leaving. She leaps to her feat and feels dazed by the fact that her head isn't spinning, but with the newly given strength in her legs she darts after Olivia and grabs her shoulder.

"What are you doing?!"

Olivia allows herself to get pulled back, turning to face the other woman with furrowed brows.

"If he's hurt, I have to find him." It has never occurred to her to be discriminate with her healing, especially with their own crew. She can understand Serene's fear, and perhaps even a bit of her anger, too. But they have all been affected by those bugs, in one way or another. She's almost certain Meallan as he is now is not the Meallan they'd known, and therefore not entirely to blame for all that had transpired.

And even if he was...

"I can't just let him die."

Serene wants to drag Olivia away, wants to shelter her, but even with in her panic she knows that Meallan doesn't deserve to die, not if he's able to go back to who he usually is. She stares down into Olivia's eyes, her hold tightening as she makes her demand.

"Make me a vow, Olivia, make me a solemn promise: do not let yourself be harmed trying to heal him. If he comes for you, run. You will be useless to everyone who depends upon you if you let yourself be injured." Later on she'll know she's been unfair to throw Olivia's own confessions back in her face, but right now she just wants to drill her point in.

It was a simple enough promise. And not one she hadn't heard from others before; both Gintoki and Sieglinde had both made her recite some form of a vow with a similar intention, and each time Olivia had hesitated... but in the end she always acquiesced.

"I promise," she says this time again, knowing full well that she may possibly end up breaking it, should things ever come down to it. But she also knows she doesn't do these things on purpose, and so there should be some credit allowed for that. Decisions like that — in saving yourself for the sake of the majority at the expense of one other life — those decisions cannot ever be made lightly.

But here, in this quiet moment between two women, a simple promise can be made. She only hopes Serene would have the capacity to forgive her, should she ever find herself breaking it.

"Please get to somewhere safe," she says again, this time attempting a smile of reassurance. "It'll all be alright."

She draws away then, because time is precious, and quietly follows the trail of blood Serene had left in her wake.

Respect is earned

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