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It's not the worst pain she's ever felt.
But really, is that saying much? Because she's been - how did the docs put it? Deconstructed? Yeah, that. They put her back together after that, did a damn good job, but it still hurt. Way worse than this. But maybe that just means she's got a wonky screwed-up idea of how much something oughta hurt.
“Shit!”
That's Flash. Probably pissed. Yeah, that's fair. Raz doesn't know what exactly is wrong just yet but sure as shit there's something. Multiple somethings. Head, shoulders, back, ribs, leg, leg again, leg a third time, tail.
“Fuuuuuuck,” she says, long and wheezy because the breath’s gone out of her and stuttering like she's going to cry, fu-huh-huh-huh-huh-ck, is she going to cry about this? That's embarrassing.
“What is wrong with you! Why would - I told you not to try that!”
Flash again. Focus her eyes, there he is, fluttering down to land next to her as if he needs to flutter or use his wings at all. Cheating bastard. Fucker. She squints, focusing on him.
“Do not move,” he orders. Okay. She doesn't. He bends his head down to press a foreclaw to his skull by the crest. “What were you thinking?!”
“Woulda taken days to go around,” Raz mumbles.
“I told you you wouldn't be able to make the jump!”
“Yeah, but…”
But what? Why didn't she do as she was told?
Flash looks up again, then leans in. “Raz?”
“Forgot.”
His expression changes, a flicker. Concern. “Tell me your name.”
“‘s Raz.”
“Full name, sweetheart.”
“Tarazedel Auritus.”
“And mine?”
“Flashpoint.”
“Full name.”
“Fffff. Fuck. I don't remember.”
“Where are we?”
“Fucking. Ground.” Stupid question. What's he going on about this for?
“Look at me.” Flash holds up a forepaw, and it's wreathed in bright, pretty flame. “Follow this light.”
She tries. But her eyes won't focus on it, and she keeps getting distracted.
“Shit,” Flashpoint mutters, extinguishing the flame that wasn't even real to begin with. “Hold still, let me get a look at what you broke.”
“Ribs maybe?”
“Oh, it's more than just those! You're bleeding. Everywhere.”
Really? “Oh. Sorry.”
“Kill me again,” Flash mutters, and disappears, trotting out of sight. Raz can't feel him touching her anywhere, but he probably is.
When he moves back into her field of vision, his expression is harsher. Pinched, tight, stressed. He shouldn't look like that. “Bad news,” he announces, “you are fucked up.”
“Good news?”
“There is no good news.”
“...oh.”
After a second he relents. “You're not dead,” he begrudgingly allows. “Fucking listen to me next time. I need to go and try to find help. You need to not move.”
“Yes sir,” Raz mumbles.
“Good girl. Stay put.”
He's gone again. It's quiet. There's water running somewhere nearby. She's thirsty. But she feels sick. Where's the sun? She can't say, can't see it from down in here. This lush green canyon. Crack in the ground, take a full day to go around to the south, too close to the city north. The walls are steep, sheer, but she probably could've climbed down and back up again. Been careful. But she tried the fast route. Tried to jump the gap. Flash told you not to!
Why did she do that? Why didn't she listen? She should've listened. Flash knows what's best.
He's back. She sees the red and green in her vision, blurry. “Flash,” she tries.
“Yeah, sweetheart, I'm here. There's nobody around. No one I can reach, anyway. I can't go far from you.” He paces back and forth, not stirring the blades of grass beneath his claws. Raz wonders if he's touching the ground. Probably not. “I - fuck. I don't want to do this. Raz, honey, get up.”
What? “Y. You told me to stay still.”
“Yeah, I know, and I'd prefer you do, but unfortunately if we do that you're just going to bleed out and die here. So I need you to get up. And not dislodge any of the shards stuck in you.”
Shards? Raz makes her brain issue the command that usually makes her legs work the way she tells them to, and it does work, thought kind of slowly, and that's annoying , but she can do it, she can do as she's told. This time. She pulls her paws underneath her and tries to stand.
Shit that hurts. That hurts. She whines out loud.
“I know it hurts, sweetheart, I know,” Flash tells her, voice soft. “You have to get up for me, though. I need you to move.”
“I don't know if I can.”
His expression is still that tight concerned fear. “Do you want me to handle it?” he asks.
On one paw no, she can do it, she's a grown-ass adult and Flash knows it. On the other -
She hurts and she's having trouble thinking and if she can give herself over to Flashpoint, maybe he'll make it all better. Which is a dumb-ass, hatchling way to think of things, but - he does, he does, Flash makes things better.
“Please,” she begs him, swaying where she sits. “Please help me.”
“I've got you, darling,” Flashpoint says, and takes a few quick steps forward and into her body. He vanishes, and she feels the warmth and comfort of his presence spread through her, under her hide, in her gut. Warm, safe, good.
Get up, honey, let's go, he whispers inside her mind. She feels her body obey, no matter how much it hurts. She feels that Flash regrets that, regrets that the stones cut her worse and her bones grate when he forces her to move. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You're such a good girl. Easy now. Go to sleep inside your head, alright? Can you do that for me? Go to sleep inside your head. Let me handle this.
If Flash is moving the body then Flash can be the one who feels it. Raz lets him dull her mind down to nothing, barely perceiving it as her body drags itself up and forward and turns north, trudging up the canyon towards the city they were trying to avoid.
I don't want to go to the city, Raz thinks, the city is expensive to be in.
I know, sweetheart, but there are people there who can help you.
But she doesn't want to go to the city. They don't have any money. And being in cities just tells her over and over how much she doesn't belong and it feels bad.
You're fucking bleeding out, honey, we're going to the fucking city.
…okay.
They make far enough.
There's little edge suburbs out here to the south of Aergate, or, east maybe? They didn't even get that far around the city before Raz tried that stupid jump and got herself impaled.
It's been a challenge trying to get her body to obey, dragging her paws over ferns and moss and tree roots and sharp stones. Flash doesn't like how much her paws are getting torn up by this. There's not much else he can do. It's taking all his fucking energy just to keep her moving! And to keep her from realizing there's a slender slice of shale jabbed far enough into her torso to puncture her lung and possibly whatever else might be in there! He's not a doctor, he doesn't know what the hell organs are where. Just knows that they're leaking and they shouldn't be.
His sweet, well-meaning, stupid Raz. Who in their right mind -
Later. He can properly tell her off for not listening later. When she's not dying.
He pushes her broken, leaking body (her augments are jostled, too; some of them were sporting little infections already, sure, and now the rest will be, fuck fuck fuck) to the edges of some quiet-looking suburb with houses tucked into patches of forest. He doesn't want the houses. A house might be empty. He finds the biggest road he can, one that looks like at least someone's used it in the last few hours, and once there he lets Raz’s body collapse to the cobblestones.
She passes out, and Flash lets that shove him from her body. He won't push her any further. Her big head cracks uncomfortably against the stones - ouch, sorry Raz - and she is out.
Flash shakes himself. Back in the world, nonphysical, except for Raz of course, unable to touch anything else. Just his big stupid sandsurge. He sits down next to her head.
“You'll be alright, sweetheart,” he murmurs, though she can't hear him. Distantly he hears the beat of wings and faint voices, somewhere down the road. Approaching? Yes, approaching. If he still had a heart to beat, it would be thundering along, he knows, terror and relief. “Hear that? Someone's coming to help us.”
All he can do is wait. He leans against her head, petting the bony, bloodied ridge above one of her eyes. “It'll be okay,” he whispers. “It's going to be okay.”
“- is that, do you see that? Hello?”
A stranger. He can't answer them. Or he could, but they won't hear him. “See? Just like I told you,” he says to Raz, instead.
“Uh, hello? I think that's a dragon.”
“What the hell are they doing laying in the road? Going to get -”
“Is that blood?”
“What? Wh - oh. Oh, goodness. ”
“Hey! Hey, you! Are you okay?”
A fathom and a gaoler, now running up the street. The fathom is in the lead.
“I'll call for help,” the gaoler says, and splits off towards one of the houses.
The fathom skids to a halt. His gaze passes right over Flashpoint, of course; most people cannot see ghosts. He leans down and touches Raz’s throat, feeling for a pulse. “Oh fuck, oh fuck,” the fathom whispers, “okay, uh, uhh. This isn't good. Hey, buddy, just hold on, okay?”
“Just hold on,” Flash repeats to Raz. “My Raz. Hold on.”