The Cauldron of Black: Through The Looking Glass

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Waking Up
When she came to, the world of Brina McTavish was incomprehensible and alien thanks to her scattered senses.

She let out a groan as she slowly opened her eyes, her gaze weary and exhausted. Her vision was blurred, taking only hints of an upside-down world of brimstone and fire. Looking downward rewarded her with the sight of reddish-orange rocks covering her body. As she took it in, feeling returned to her. She ached all over, and in her haze, she couldn't quite figure out why. A shuddering breath her as the pain washed over her, fueling the rest of her senses to a full state of alertness. She took in another one, instinctively preparing to get herself up and on her feet.

A sudden pain shot through her right leg.

Her head fell back against the ground, and she let out an agonized cry as the awful sensation shot up her body. She clenched her teeth, raising her head up as best as she could to see what had caused it. Although she couldn't see much it, she could catch splotches of red right beside the affected leg. Moving it not only caused considerable pain, but it felt like she was rubbing it through a fluid. In addition, she could feel the several breaks within the limb. In that instant, everything came back to her. There was the fight with the Winter Knight. There was one of his arrows that had sent them on a free-fall from the area they had been in. And now, there was this.

"Great..." She hissed through clenched teeth, rolling her eyes away from the wound and laying her head back down. "Just how can this get any worse"

She was cut off when she laid her head back completely, the sight of a gun barrel pressed against her head stopping her cold. At first, she looked shocked. But when she took in just how exactly was holding the gun, it was quick to regress. She took in a deep breath and exhaled harshly, closing her eyes. "That," She mumbled. "Is a very good answer."

It was the Winter Knight himself.

He appeared to be in better shape than the now immobilized McTavish, his uniform covered in dust spots and several ripped patches of cloth. His visor was missing, though he retained his black face plate, revealing his one good blue left eye and his scarred, blinded right one. The most significant damage that one would be able to make out would be his mechanical right arm; sparks would occassionally pop outwards of its joints, and it appeared to be missing a few parts, sometimes twitching as if he were struggling to hold it straight.

He stared her down, the hand gun pressed tightly up against her forehead for several seconds before he finally spoke. "...My arm's damaged, vision's slightly impaired, I lost my target, feeling agitated and helpless... and I'm low on my ammo count... you picked a bad time to get pinned under a rock with me, McTavish." he said in a gruff and irritated voice.

Brina slowly opened her eyes to a half-lidded position. A weak grin was made out of her mouth, despite the hurting she was going through. "Well, look on the good side..." She said hoarsely, chuckling painfully. "Clearly, you still have enough rounds to kill me with. And at the very least, you can walk out of here with the majority of yourself intact. Me? I'm going to die at the hands of this husk of a being, this shell of a soul walking in human clothing. Sazuke's already probably coming up with some malarkey speech about me having to be left behind for the sake of duty, writing me off as dead. Knowing her, she'd be glad to have the thorn in her side taken out."

The smile faded away, and she closed her eyes once more. "Well, I don't think I'm in much of a position to stop you. My leg's busted, my body's refusing to cooperate with me and I think the fight took a lot more out of me than I anticipated. I guess you win this fight, Asumu. Go on. Finish me off."

With his free hand, the mercenary reached up and ripped his faceplate off, tossing it aside. Sure enough, it was the former Sternritter 'S' of the dissolved Wandenreich: Asumu Godai. His glare kept itself fixated on her, the gun still pressed against her head as his finger calmly placed itself on the trigger. He seemed to be contemplating his next set of actions very carefully before he would commence executing one of his old friends, and the longer he thought, the pressure of the gun being pressed against her forehead would decrease, before he finally lowered it entirely. Knowing their current situation, wasting ammo on executing an opponent who couldn't fight back was both a waste and counterproductive, as such ammo could be used to help him survive the remainder of this plane until he could reach an extraction point. Ammo was a problem to begin with as he couldn't afford to draw attention to himself by drawing in Spiritual energy to use Heilig Pfeil, and this also reminded him that the sound produced from the shot intending to kill Brina would also draw unneeded attention to himself.

He knew he only had one real choice.

"Now that's a sad state, seeing you quit so easily." He said as he calmly holstered the gun on his left leg's compartment, before kneeling down closer to her on one knee. "From what I learned, there are at least ten different ways you can fix this situation, or could have at least, before you let me get the drop on you." he said, his gaze glancing back towards the direction that his fellow Quincy had gone, before letting out an annoyed and defeated sigh. "Thanks to your intrusion, my target's already gone too far out of my reach. I'm going to have to get out of here to regroup with my team..." he went on before turning his gaze back to her. "... and you're coming with me."

Beat.

Brina could only regard him with bewilderment, opening her eyes and staring at him as if he had grown a second head. Even the pain coursing through her body couldn't stop her incredulity. Had he really staved his hand? He had a perfect opportunity to finish her off, get rid of the thorn in his side before it could sink any deeper. Yet, he had spared her? She could only imagine what propelled him into this line of thinking.

But when she heard about his target, her shock gave way to confusion. An eyebrow was cocked and her mouth curled in a slight frown. The way he was speaking made it seem like she had misinterpreted his true intentions. She believed that his target had been the rescue/attack force. But he wouldn't have told her about coming with him, unless it meant she was to be a hostage or tortured for information. The thought of being tortured sent a chill down her spine, and she had to make sure she didn't let it show on the surface. She gave another weak chuckle, slowly closing her eyes. "Look, honey. If you're trying to hold me up for ransom or squeeze me for info, you're wasting your time. After all, I am still a member of the Onmitsukidō..."

Asumu didn't verbally respond, instead, his metal arm reached out towards the larger piece of debris that was pinning her to the ground and pulled it upwards by a few inches, just enough for his free hand to grab hold of Brina under her right armpit and then pull her out of the debris. Although he wasn't rough in doing so, his motion wouldn't be terribly gentle either, a sign that he could possibly be in a hurry. As he set the boulder back down, he calmly lifted one of Brina's arms around his shoulders, briefly putting his other arm around her waist to help better support her. When it was finished, he pulled out his pistol from his holster and kept it in his free hand. "You're of no use to me in either case." he responded finally, starting to steadily walk with her towards the direction of what appeared to be a forest of large, pointed purple thorns that seemed to stick out of the level's surface for miles on end.

"...I just don't want your rescue team to start firing at me on sight." he continued. "And if they're going to send who I think they're going to send, then I think we'll be in good hands."

Either Asumu didn't know how to properly carry someone with a broken leg, or he was being purposefully sadistic.

Being dragged from the rubble caused an overwhelming spike of agony to shoot from her shattered leg and through the rest of her body. She had to clench her teeth in order to stifle a moan, her eyes reflexively squinting as they focused on her form getting pulled out. The blood staining both the clothing around the limb and the ground left a trail in her wake, and the slight bumps were shaking up the broken bone even more. As he lifted her up on her feet, her eyes widened with a hint of alarm. Her mouth opened up, attempting to relay a warning to her courier.

"W-wait--!"

The foot of her wounded leg met the ground, and her position made her press her weight on it.

She shut her eyes and let out a pained shout, her body falling from Asumu's grip and back to the ground again. She managed to bring up her arms to keep her face from hitting the ground, but had to roll on her side in order to avoid pressing any more on her fractures. She pressed a hand against her thigh, looking up at him a mixture of pain and irritation. "Have you not heard of inspecting a rustled package before you start carrying it any which way?" She hissed, exhaling a breath as she focused her gaze on her leg. "Or didn't you get the part where I said I had a leg busted up?"

She didn't wait for a response, pushing herself as best as she could while keeping herself on her side. She closed her eyes, focusing a few Kidō spells in order to mend the leg. A Geki spell paralyzed it, and very slight bursts of energy from a Sai spell allowed her to push the bone back into place. She hissed softly as she dug fingers into her thigh, piercing it to the point of her tips were touching the bone. From those tips, a miniature Hōrin spell wrapped around the bone to ensure that further agitation of her injuries was minimal. Although it would require her focus to keep these spells in check, it would also keep her from getting wounded by any more movement.

She ripped off one of her sleeves, using her finger to cut it into a ribbon before hiking her hakama leg. As she set to dressing the wound, she looked up at Asumu again. Once again, her expression had regressed to a simple raise of the eyebrow plus a small frown. "And what's this about a rescue team? Like I said, they're not coming back for me. That'd be wasting time and numbers, searching for one lone operative. They'll proceed on as planned. As far as they're concerned, I've just become another statistic. I thought you, of all people, would've guessed that much."

Try as she might, she couldn't help the subtle taste of bitterness that came along with those words.

As before, Asumu's response would be delayed. With a sharp scrape of metal, like a sword being ripped from a sheathe, he pulled another pistol out of his other side compartment, grabbing it by the barrel and then holding it's handle up to her for her to grab with her free hand. "I don't have time to baby you." he responded gruffly as they entered the violet rock forest. There were small stretches of something resembling a trail inside of it, one that he would have to follow in order to reach a proper clearing. In his mind, an area like this would be difficult for any possible pursuers to both traverse and find them at the same time. Any normal individual could possibly end up losing themselves in this forest, as there were numerous trails, all leading in different directions between the eerie violet sharp rocks that seemed to stretch on endlessly, but Asumu had the capability to see the true path with little difficulty.

"Besides..." he continued after a few seconds. "...if I remember what you told me before all of this, you've been through a lot worse than a busted leg." His blind eye then glanced over at her as he continued moving, his pace pace not losing a beat despite the load he was carrying. "Which reminds me... I never did say it was good to at least see you again... even if I was trying to kill you earlier."

Silently, Brina thanked herself for her impromptu medical procedure. Once again, she had found herself in the same position as before. But this time, her wounded leg had the strength to support itself. It stung every time she pressed her foot against the ground, but at the very least she was able to walk. She could brush off the stings, as long as they didn't become worse.

As she walked as best as she could alongside him, she cast a glare of annoyance at him. The gun she held in her hand twitched, almost as if she was ready to shoot him down then and there. But she remained silent, listening to him to the very end of his words. At this, she regarded him with a bemused curiosity. It was almost as if she was looking at a completely different person - at least, one different compared to the one she had fought prior to their fall. The "shell-shocked soldier" act was falling away, and a bit of the old him that she knew was seeping out. Had it been just an act, all along?

"What happened to you?" She asked quietly. "I was so certain back there that you had discarded your humanity, your very identity. I'm not even sure if you're still in that state of mind or just playing me for a fool."