She scooted closer to Gabriella and leaned over blowing her breath across her freckled, white skin. She grinned as they sniffed the air. Gabriella sank her fingers into the ground, the cool air ascending from underneath, coiling around her hands swirled around her body like a creeping fog.

Clarissa nodded, "good…"

She laid her hand on Gabriella's belly, her knuckles curled as the tips of her nails pressed against her skin. She leaned her head, studying Gabriella with concern in her eyes.

Gabriella wrinkled her eyebrows, opening her mouth to speak.

"This is going to hurt…" Clarissa spoke, holding her other hand up to stop her from talking. She peeked at Ruiko, nodding her head, "don't…" She spoke.

"I need to learn about those organic micro machines. The young man created…" She looked back at Gabriella, her eyes glimmering. She drew a hurried breath, stiffening her body then nodded, her fingers gripping the dirt between them.

"It will be quick…"

Clarissa's fingers sank into her flesh, ripping open her abdomen. The air resounded with the noise of a canvas ripping and Gabriella screaming in agony. Ruiko screamed, quickly covering her mouth as the tears trickled down her cheeks. The stink, wetness of blood permeated the air as droplets dotted Ruiko skin and clothing.

Gabriella's chest swelled and sank as her face wet with tears and beads of blood. She choked and gasped. She strained her blood splattered face, lifting her head up, her eyes full in horror.

"What did you do…?" She broke down sobbing, looking at the hunk of skin ripped open exposing her inside.

Clarissa was removing her hand from inside Gabriella's body. Her skin moved to the side, jagged glistening bright crimson, displaying her muscles. Her skin wrinkled, open like a ripped bag as Clarissa's hand floated above her abdomen, covered with a dense liquid dripping from her fingers. She lifted her wrist, her hand pointing towards her body observing the droplets of blood falling into the wound. She was about to snap her wrist when Ruiko reached out taking her arm above the shining red syrup. Ruiko's teeth cut into her lower lip as she shook her head, her stomach twisting, turning sour. Her throat burned from her stomach acid trying to leave her body.

"Watch…" She choked the words out. Clarissa nodded.

Clarissa's eyes swirling black, blues, and speckles of crimson focusing on the flow that dropped into Gabriella's wound. The blood felt conscious, warm across her skin as if alive. She could see it changing directions flowing down her arm, along her fingers forcing what was in front to plunge through the air. She wrinkled her eyebrow as Ruiko moved the lump of flesh, protecting her exposed insides. She could hear the wet, sticky movement as long fibers stretched, reaching towards each other, joining together then pulled the chunk of skin towards the edge of the wound, healing itself.

"Are you still in pain Gabriella…?" Clarissa looked at her clean hand once hidden in blood. She smiled seeing the action underneath the skin.

"No…" Gabriella struggled, letting out a sigh of relief.

"I see… Just the original strike then…" She nodded, "good… Very good… Accelerated healing at the microscopic level…" She leaned back with a grin on her face, "very good…" She sounded extremely pleased.

"Living little helpers…" She laughed, "I must see him…"

Clarissa grinned, as she looked at Ruiko, "no wonder, with such detail in his work you are so willing…"

Ruiko's mouth fell, arching her eyebrows as she blushed. She sighed as her heart quicken, Thinking about him.

Clarissa watching, "so it will not interfere with what I have to do…"

Ruiko smiled, her cheeks swelling as she released a breath of relief, looking at Gabriella. Her face flushed, her skin a shade of light red, readied herself as she sank her fingers further into the ground.

"How bad…" Gabriella spoke, glancing at Ruiko and then to Clarissa. She drew a breath lifting her arm up over Gabriella's body, just above her shoulder.

Clarissa cocked her head, her eyes drifting across Gabriella's face, "have you ever been around the farm…"

Gabriella's eyes rolled, drawing a heavy breath, the picture already in her mind. The runes on Katrina's body were the color of flesh melted. She groaned, her stomach turning remembering the stink. When cattle were brought in to the ranch. She took a sharp breath, straightening her head, closing her eyes.

"Branding…" Gabriella's jaws tensed. Ruiko caught her breath, reaching out to take her hand suddenly drew back.

"Ruiko…" She hesitated, her finger spreading like a spider running along the fiber of webbing. "You can take her wrist but not her hand… Okay…"

Ruiko smiled.

Gabriella's body tensed, her muscles so tight that she expected her bones to shatter. Her skin tightening, stretching, burning as Clarissa's fingers drifted through the air, never contacting her skin as oranges and reds snaked across the images that emerged from her flesh. Ruiko held her wrist with one hand acknowledging the suffering as tears rolled from Gabriella's eyes. The other covering her nose and mouth as tears dropped, her throat tightening as bile burned her throat, with the stink of charring flesh filling the air. She wretched as her muscles crushed her body, glancing to Gabriella's wet eyes with her heart pounding then to Clarissa absorbed in her task, observing the skin burning away.

How could she stand the stink? Ruiko couldn't understand her face revealing no sentiments, breathing normally as if she were going for a walk or talking, nothing. She thought to herself.

She glanced out the barrier, watching an extremely slow moving picture of the battle. Katrina's eyes and face lit up with emotions. She looked magnificent, Ruiko sighed watching Katrina's body stilled. She imagined it in full motion on that night when they killed Edward, captured Klaus. How the moon reflected off her dark skin. The runes the intensity of fire smoldering, her long hair swept in the breeze. The affection she felt as she draped her arms around her drawing her tight in a secure embrace. Her heartbeat as she settled her cheek against her bosom, the softness of her skin. The power in her hands as she held hers as they strolled to the apartment.

"I love her…" She understood.