[7] vs. Sebastian

[Sage]

Zena crumpled beneath Sebastian’s underhanded sneak attack, and the other two girls were frozen in place, gun barrels pressed into their backs. Neither dared move, while the clawed man rolled the blond hybrid onto her back with his foot. His booted foot crashed down onto Zena’s throat, forcing a gasp from Sage, who watched helplessly as he put all the weight he could onto that foot.

“You three would be better off washing my clothes,” he taunted, flashing a wicked grin at the blue haired girl, who couldn’t take her slack-jawed stare off the horrible sight in front of her. And yet, the guard behind her made any kind of retaliation impossible. “I can’t imagine you all actually thought you had a chance. So, then, why even bother?”

Ashe! came Sage’s silent scream. What... what do I do?

The student shot the young doctor a look, but it was empty. There was no conviction or confidence, like Zena sometimes exuded, to wordlessly inform Sage of some vague plan. Ashe’s look was... hopeless.

And suddenly, Ashe pitched forward, collapsing onto the ground. Sage’s heart skipped a beat, but she could do nothing with the gun at her back, but then she saw what was really happening.

Ashe had fallen down with her arm extended - with her gun aimed at Sebastian. As soon as she hit the ground, her finger wrapped around the trigger, spraying the warrior’s legs with the ruby energy. He howled in pain, leaping up into the air.

As soon as his foot left the princess’ throat, Zena vanished, appearing behind the guards who had snuck up on her sister and her sister’s friend. A quick punch felled one, but the other, she planted a chop to his neck, shattering his vertebrae. This one had pointed his gun at Sage.

“Stay out of my way!” she rasped, her throat on fire from the damage Sebastian inflicted. Literally leaping over her sister as she threw herself at her enemy, Zena lashed out with a point-blank energy wave before laying into her stunned opponent.

Sage helped Ashe to her feet, and then returned her attention to her twin. The blond girl was moving more slowly, awkwardly than she should have. “Something’s not... right,” the Valium addict muttered. Zena didn’t give herself a chance to catch her breath; she couldn’t keep going without a break.

Sure enough, a pillar of ki slammed into her sibling, and Zena tumbled across the ground. Ashe opened fire on Sebastian, hoping to draw him away for a moment. Sage followed suit, but Sebastian rushed them, ducking under and vaulting over any of the energy blasts that came too close.

He was done playing. He lashed out with one of his claws, and caught Ashe across the chest, the cold metal of his deadly appendage cutting deep into her flesh. Blood sprayed Sebastian’s face and chest, and stained the girl’s clothing. She fell limp, toppling backward, and she crashed onto the ground beneath.

Sage shook so hard she dropped her gun, not at all focused on the murderer who stood only feet from her. Her eyes were on the girl at his feet. “Ashe!” her voice was nearly silent. “Ashe! No!”

Crack!!

Zena’s elbow smashed into Sebastian’s spine, catapulting him across the square. “Don’t just stare. Help her,” she ordered, before igniting the super saiyan flames within her. Her insistence was for Sage’s well-being, not Ashe’s. Zena didn’t care too much for most people, but she wasn’t about to let Sage watch a friend die without at least trying to do something for her.

Sebastian clashed with Zena, far enough away that Sage was as safe as she could hope to be with a psychopath trying to kill her about. She raced to Ashe’s side and fell to her knees, hurriedly checking the pink haired girl’s vitals. Not good, she decided not to say. A shame Ashe heard it anyway.

The girl checked her pockets for her medical capsule, and cringed. It wasn’t there. She checked again, she patted down her shirt and pants. Nothing. “No, no, no, no!” her head jerked about, her eyes furiously racing up and down, trying to find some kind of alternative. “Ashe, please, no!” Sage desperately tried her pockets again, but she knew she was wasting her time. Finally, she fell upon the sweater Ashe still had clenched in her grip.

The doctor took it and pressed it against her friend’s wound, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough. Without the proper equipment to close the gaping slashes, Ashe was going to die. She was already unconscious, at least. It didn’t make it any easier, though.

Sage leaned down, resting her head against the sweater that was now bunched up overtop of Ashe’s chest, and she wept. The first patient she would ever lose in her life, and it was going to be one of the only people on the outside that had reached out to her. One of the only people who had included her in some small way in the world outside her tiny bubble.

The fighting increased in pitch, but she didn’t notice. All she focused on was the rising, sickly sensation in her throat and the fading beat of Ashe’s heart. Maybe more soldiers would come. Let them come. They could do no more harm to Ashe, at least.

“No... Ashe, you can’t...” Sage tried to stifle herself, but it only made the sobbing more bitter. The sickly feeling gave in to something else, then, and she found herself suddenly feeling very, very tired. She closed her eyes, sinking further into the now-bloody sweater on Ashe’s chest, her hands still pressing down on it in some vain attempt to put pressure on the enormous wounds.

But then Ashe groaned. Sage jerked up, and through eyes clouded, she looked at her. And through the haze of tears, Ashe was obscured by some blue light. Sage wiped her eyes, and saw that it wasn’t Ashe in the light, but Sage. She was... glowing. She lifted one hand to examine herself, but quickly returned it to the sweater, returning pressure to the injury.

She couldn’t believe such a rudimentary technique worked, when she was absolutely positive suturing would be necessary, but she refused to question it. The blue glow persisted, and it was then that she realized Ashe was awake, and was looking at Sage with the greatest concern. ...Awake?!

“Uh, yeah?” Ashe shot back, “Sage, what’s-?”

“I don’t know,” came the reply. ‘What’s with the glow?’ Sage knew that’s what she was going to ask, and the truth was, she had no idea. But she was more concerned with the fact that the bruising and swelling on Ashe’s face had suddenly disappeared, along with the cuts and scrapes. “I don’t... I...” though she hesitated for a moment, she knew she had to check the cuts on Ashe’s chest. She lifted the sweater, dripping with blood, and set it aside to look at the gashes in the student’s chest.

There wasn’t even a scratch.

“H-How?!” Sage stumbled and fell onto her backside. The glow began to fade away, and soon had disappeared altogether. “You... There’s no way you could-” she looked at Ashe for a long time. “You should be... dead.”

“Well, I feel...” Ashe paused, putting a hand to her head, then to her side. “Really good,” her voice was apprehensive, though. Concerned about what happened. “But... what did...”

“I... I don’t know,” the azure haired girl repeated. “I don’t know, I don’t-”

“It’s okay,” the younger girl interrupted. “What matters is you... healed me. Somehow. I guess we can work out the details when we-”

“Th-this really... bothers me, Ashe. I can’t... how do I even-”

“Sage,” she interrupted again. “I don’t know what to tell you, okay? Maybe you have a gift. Right now, we have to worry about Sebastian. Remember your sister, right?” she took a deep breath. It wasn’t like Sage was the only one put off by the situation. Being told you should be dead by a doctor was hardly comforting. Really, though, she was just as shocked and mystified by whatever it was Sage had done as she was. “If we don’t focus, he’ll kill us.”

“O-Okay,” Sage nodded, halfway listening. She was checking her hands over, looking for some hidden clue as to what she had done, but there was none. “It felt... weird. Like I was being... drained.”

“Sage, please. I need you to focus,”

“Okay...” the blue haired girl sighed. Ashe was right. “What... what should we do?”