In the wrong place at the wrong time

You chuckle.

Good point.

You chuckle a bit more as you empty your canteen. Shit, you already went threw all that?

You didn't brake it did you?

You sound genuinely concerned.

I don't... normally do this job... I mean... I used to do this alot... I used to be the best... I forgot....

Your head is dropping onto your chest. You really should sleep, it's sounding better more and more in your head. You force yourself to sit up, taking one of your knives and slicing your hand. This was no where near rational behavior, just you trying to stay awake long enough for moon rise so you could go and track that seadweller bitch. If you could even stand that was. Maybe letting out more blood was a bad idea.

You rub your arm. "Uh I dunno. I, um, I hit it pretty hard... twice." That sounded rather pathetic, but at least you weren't crying anymore. You watch him, very unsure what to say. You didn't think much of assassins, you didn't think much of many of the ways the empress handled things. He's falling asleep, and you wonder if you should let him, in a way you would be helping the other seadweller get away. I mean, what could she have done to piss the empress off? Your eyes widen when he slices open his hand.

"Y-You know you really s-shouldn't do that... I mean its none of my buisness but you could really damage the nerves in your hand and it would make it more difficult to, uh, hold knives and such."

Yeah you did... I should a wore my bulge protector.

You laugh again, you sound tired to your own ears.

Yeah you are right... Don't think I cut that deep.

You hold your hand out to the side as if you could better judge it that way. Your whole body leans in the process and you fall over onto your side. It takes you a while to relaise this. Your brain is just so slow right now. You cannot really think of anything. You loosen your armor a bit more. Nothing was working, you could feel the fever starting to burn under your skin. Something was still drawing off your chucklevoodoos.

Ah... fuck...

You mutter, you fucked up big time thinking you could use that.

There was no way you were going to apologize for kicking him in the bulge. No way. You rub your arm again, gasping when he fell over. You are unsure what to do, still not wanting to get to close, remembering how he was able to use your hair to manipulate your movements. "Um a-are you alright? D-do you need me to help you?" You could practically feel the heat rolling off of him. Thinking quickly, you hurry to the bathroom, soaking a towel in cold water and returning to the troll's side. Against your better judgement, you kneel beside him and press the towel to his forehead. "Hopefully this will help."

Some laughsasin I am... You should go before the drones come for me...

You mutter roused some by the wet cloth on your head.

It does... thank you.

You can't help but to look so hopeless. Here you were trapped with in a cage in the shape of a red trident and fate.

When you make it to your hive... can you just... give these coordinates to the handle terrorCharter... She's my 'rail... I ain't going anywhere... No... don't give it to her... she'll just get caught by the drones... Just tell her I'm sorry...

Fingers shaking, you unlatch his armor, slowly easing it off. "D-drones?" You had a small handful of serving drones, small tiny things, but you'd never seen any of the drones feared by trollkind. Your brain swam, sunset was still hours away, and if the drones arrived before them you'd be culled as well. And if you left and the drones culled this troll, well... Despite that he had tried to kill you... You would feel guilty. You dug through your sylladex, which was crammed with useless junk. Maybe... Maybe... Ahah! Finally you had grabbed something handy for once. Your palmhusk charger. You quickly located a plug and put your palmhusk to charge. You had an idea... But it was slim it would work. But it was worth trying. While you were up, you found a bowl and filled it with cool water, returning to the laugh assassins side and soaking the towel in cool water.

"So, um, you never told me your name."

You try to sit up some. You know you need to get out of this armor, fuck all these buckles. She seemed to be ahead of you helping you to get out of all that leather. It would be soaked with sweat on the inside. You were so hot. As you would take off the last few peaces and lay back down you saw her take out a charger of some sort and hook up... Ah a mobile husk top.

Name? Aarush... Aarush Dasura.

You don't know why she is staying. She is risking her life. But you are grateful for it.

You push him down gently, "You should rest." You are still scared and nervous, but you couldn't just leave him here. You mop the sweat from his face, wring the towel out, then soak it again before laying it across his forehead. The wringing makes you wince, makes you wonder if you did break your arm. Or fracture it.

You return to your palmhusk and it blinks to life, and immediately starts buzzing. There are a couple messages from the Empress about the status of the monsters, and for once, you don't reply. You create a new message, knowing you were really risking your neck here. Politely and diplomatically, you tell her that the projects would be delayed slightly due to your broken arm (despite that you weren't sure it was broken), and then continue to tell how a rouge seadweller took you hostage and that a brave laughassassin had saved your life at the cost of the rouge getting away. You turn the volume up on the phone so you will hear it go off, then return to Aarush.

"I've, um, I've tried to pull some strings so that the drones don't pay you a visit."

You are too feverish by this time to really reply. You just nod your head slowly. Everything was becoming a red haze. Your eyes close as you let out a sigh. You don't do it on purpose but you gently grab the seadweller's hand, it was so cool a welcome focus other then your burning body. You run your thumb slowly over the top of her hand. Memories you had thought you had forgotten would slowly come back. Your past matespirit had been a seadweller, a sort of mutant her blood had been a a dark rust color, yet she was as cool as could be. Gods you were pathetic, purple tears just come from your eyes. It was your fault she was dead. You want to push this other troll away, to save her, but you are to weak to do so. You really were pathetic.

You are unsure what to do, but you don't pull your hand away. You keep it relaxed in his while you mop off his face again, gritting your teeth as you move your bad arm. You really didn't know why you were doing this. You leaned against the wall, exhausted. You'd only grabbed a few hours of sleep before running for your life, and adrenaline drained you like crazy. Slowly you nodded off, your head rolling towards your shoulder, your hand still in Aarush's.

You wake to your phone dinging, a signal that you had a message. You wrung out the towel and freshened it with cool water, giving Aarush's hand a quick squeeze before re-positioning it on his forehead and slipping your fingers from his. You checked your phone, the Empress had messaged you back. She said that she knew his name and would remember that he had saved her best monster-creator. You hoped that it meant that the drones were no longer coming.

You return silently to Aarush's side and sit, wondering if he was feeling better.

In your sleep you have some daymares but they are short and unfocused thanks to your fever. There was a moment in your sleep you thought you were utterly alone. She had left your side, and then she had returned. Your hand would tighten around Eisire's.

Don't....go...

You mumble the words. Your fever was still not going down. You are so drained of energy your eyes open just brefly. Eisire's face mixing with another one.

Vicita...

You say softly raising your hand to gently touch Eisire's cheek before it would fall back to the floor and you would close your eyes again. You try to shift position, it was getting hard to breathe.

Vicita? Perhaps that was his moirail... He was obviously having fever hallucinations, and there was no use in trying to tell him what was reality and what wasn't. Gently, you roll Aarush onto his back, seeing that he was trying to move. You let him hold your hand, since it seemed to give him some comfort. You bite your tongue, not wanting to make any sounds of pain while you move your effed up arm. You brush his hair from his face and continue to mop up the sweat, feeling yourself nodding again. Yawning, you left the cloth on his face and let your head roll back to your shoulder. You slowly slipped down the wall in your sleep until you were lying on the floor, curled up in a little ball with your hand in Aarush's.

You dream of different things. Of a happier time for you. Of a troll who had been the light of your life. She had taught you to swim and nagavate the currents. But slowly find her drifting away from you, the light was fading. You growl in your sleep as you protectively grip Eisire tighter and pull her closer to your burning body.

A bang on the door startles you awake. The sound of metal banging agenst metal. You look around you the dreams fadeing from your memory. You can't help but to feel like you we're forgetting something that had been an important part of yourself. Your body still burned. But you needed to get yourself and the seadweller to somewhere more defendable. You pick her up and walk into what must had been a respite block, the remaines of a dried up coon was in there.

Your dreams aren't so peaceful. Daymares haunt you, mostly of falling into the trench and being hunted by lowbloods. You don't wake, you're too exhausted for that, so you murmur quietly in your slumber. You don't hear the bang, you're sleeping too deeply. You are like a rag doll in the laughassassins arms, completely limp with no signs of stirring any time soon. You were an incredibly deep sleeper. The new-found warmth, however, does make you smile.

Insecurities play across your dreams. What kind of seadweller were you? First cowering to a landdweller and then taking care of him as he recovered. It was a miracle the Empress hadn't had you culled yet, then again your talent was valuable to her army.

You check the coon. It was still in working order. You can hear Eisire mutter in her sleep, she must be quite exhausted to be still asleep threw that banging. You flick the switch to refill the coon with the slime. At least one of you could have a peaceful sleep. You place her in the coon and hobble for the door. Your fevers made all your mussels feel tight, like you have not moved in days and you still burned.

You slowly put your armor back on. It takes you a while as the hangings grow louder and the sound if a panicked beast would be on the other side. You almost felt pity for your target's lusus but you soon relised why the seadweller who lived here was your target. They had turned their caretaker into some sort of cybernetic monstrosity.

Its never fucken easy... Is it?

You grip both your long knife and your club as you wait in the completly dark room. Hopefully, it would find that it's ward was not here and move on.

Strangely enough, the coon did not help you sleep. It was on occasion that your gills mistook slime for water, and it seemed this would be one of those occasions. You had been in the coon for perhaps ten minutes when your gills became confused. The second your gills opened you were awake, and scrambled to pull yourself half out of the recoupracoon, coughing and spluttering, your gills flared open wide. Had you dreamed the entire ordeal? No, this wasn't your coon. You were horribly confused, the slime in your gills blurring your senses. hadn't you fallen asleep in the hall? Or was that part of some bizarre dream?

You clamp a hand over her mouth as she starts to cough.

Quiet now... We aren't alone.

You slowly remove your hand from her mouth. You notice the slime clogging her gills, you quickly take your finger to clear her gills. You don't know how you remember to do this. You hear the beast out side and quickly help her out of the coon. Fuck you are feeling too protective over this troll. You can't quite wrap your head around it. You are still burning hot, the adrenaline pumping threw you from seeing the beast was not helping. It was right outside.

You fight against his hand at first, trying to bite him, but you freeze when he speaks and calm yourself quickly. You squirm and muffle a whimper when he puts his fingers in your gills, its a bizarre and uncomfortable feeling. Your gills are the most delicate part on your body and even the thought of someone touching them made you feel horribly vulnerable. But its over quickly, and you realize that the slime is gone.

Before you can come up with any form of thanks he is helping you out of the coon. Your head is still spinning and you are trying to piece together details, there is something metallic moving outside and you hope that it isn't a drone. Your only weapon was a fucking epipen. Seriously why the fuck didn't you pick up your crossbow?! Sweet troll wriggling jegus you were stupid.

You look around. The only way out of this room that wasn't threw the beast was out the window. You glance at it, the sand below would cushion the fall, baring of course there were no dangerous debris or overly sharp shells. But there was her arm to think about as well. It was already injered.

Can't stay here... We'll be monster bait.

You go to the window slowly. It was still sniffing outside the room. Apparently it's eyesight was bad or it was blind. You keep the seadweller close to you as you move along the back wall twords the window. Your armor should protect you from the glass as a less then sane idea comes to your mind. But then again who is sane when they burn with a high fever. At least that's the exuse you tell yourself. You wrap your cloak around the two of you and give her your mask. It wasn't daylight out, but the cloak and mask should protect her from any glass shards.

Place it on and don't move...

You wait for her to do so before wrapping your arms around her and slamming your back into the glass pane to shatter it as you fell threw and down into the sand. Your shoulder gives an painful sounding crunch as you land. You were more preoccupied in protecting her then landing properly.

You had no idea what was going on. You hadn't even been able to inspect your arm yet, which wasn't swollen but ached and sent pain up and down your arm with each movement. You didn't have time to process that your arm wasn't broken or fractured, the bone was just badly bruised, because there was something outside the door. You barely hear Aarush talking, more or less letting him pull you towards the window. You slip the mask on, still horribly confused, freezing in place when you feel his arms around you.

You are too shocked to scream when the pair of you go through the window, you only squeeze your eyes shut and squeak when you hit the ground, or more so land on him. The crunch sends chills down your spine, the sound all to familiar to when you broke your arm so long ago. Quickly, you roll off of him and take of the mask, glancing up to the window to see if whatever was after the pair of you was following.

The cybernetic horror was thankfully too large to go out the window. It must have been blind to not see them as it stuck it's head out the broken glass. You stifle a groan if pain. Fuck, you'd be surprised if you didn't do something worce then just dislocate your shoulder. You slowly roll up to a sitting position, gritting your teeth in a snarl as you hold your useless arm. You couldn't move it at all. You have to move, just move out of the beast territory. Your breathing becomes labored with pain.

Hive...?

You mange to growl out.

You help him up quickly, putting his good arm around your shoulders and slipping your arm around his waist. You walk him to the shore, more than strong enough to bear his weight. How on Alternia were you going to get him to your hive, it was on an island in the middle of the sea! You spot a jet bike, and hurry towards it. "Is this how you got here? Or do I need to hotwire it?" You'd read about hotwiring... but you'd never actually done it.

Sweet glob why were you even helping him?! You could have stolen his cloak the second he passed out and used it to shield yourself from the sun as you ran for the ocean. Then again, he could have left you in the hallway to be killed by the beast, and he then helped you escape. You were too compassionate for your own good. You were taking someone who had tried to kill you to your hive. Well, at least once you were at your hive you could fetch your crossbow.

You lean ageist her heavily. With your armor back on your fever was starting to go up again and the shock your body went threw with braking your shoulder did not help. Most of your makeup had come off after all the wet cloths she had placed on your forehead, and the dripping water. You were looking rather pale now.

Yeah... hold on...

You press a thumb to a pad in the control panel and it bike would roar into life. You start to move to sit on it, but you stumble. Yeah, you can't drive what were you thinking. Maybe she could? You don't know if she could or not, but it was worth a try. You hardly notice the fact you are slowly leaning more against her and carrying your own weight less.

You help him to sit on the bike then slip in front of him, studying the controls. They were very similar to your jetski, and you feel confident that you can control it. You have to fight back a grin when you rev it up, loving the feel of the powerful engine at your fingers.

"Hold on tight!" You wrap his uninjured arm around your slender waist and direct the bike straight towards the water. The bike skims across the waves to effortlessly, moving much faster than your jetski. You have to push down laughter of the thrill the machine gives you. Your island soon appears, and you maneuver the bike to the western side of it, then turning it quickly into the lagoon.

You slow down as you approach your hive, pulling the bike into the boat dock underneath the living space portion of your hive. Soon you are docked and you half help and half carry Aarush off of it and onto the wooden dock.

You grip her tightly around her waist. You have no desire to fall off your own jet-bike. It was bad enough that you were in no shape to pilot it. You rest your head against her shoulder. She was so cool, such a welcome relief. You grip her tighter as she would call out, your brace yourself for it but pain stabs you in the shoulder as the bike would take off. Even if you had positioned yourself better, the acceleration would have jarred it anyways. You try not to let out a cry, instead you just pull your arm tighter to yourself and press your forehead against her.

You keep still to minimize chance of injuring your arm further. The cool breeze against your feverish skin makes you shiver some even in your armor. You are dimly aware of your surroundings as she arrived at her hive. It was taking all you had not to fall off the bike by this point. When she helps you get off, you just slide off into her arms.