A/N: Totally forgot to upload this chapter for some odd reason.

The metallic taste of blood on his tongue slowly drew him away from sleep. Groaning lightly, he struggled to open his eyes as he ran the back of his hand across his lips. He took note of the crimson color that smeared itself across his glove before he touched back at his lips; watching as only more red showed up. Of course, how could he have forgotten about the whole vomiting blood part that typically followed a physical breakdown? Slowly pushing himself up on his arms, he glanced over at the women sleeping next to him. A complete look of serenity and solace dressed her as she shifted slightly in her sleep before she fell still once more. He tried not to wake her as he slowly pushed himself off the bed and got to his feet. Walking out of the bedroom, he paused slightly as he tried to figure out whether he wanted to walk through the labs or just teleport to where he wanted to be. Walking would conserve more energy than having to open up a minor portal, but then again he wasn't really up to having a field trip either. Sighing, he simply reached out and summoned a black, rectangular portal just inches in front of him. He could already feel the energy practically drain through his fingertips but managed to keep it from completely affecting his physical health. He stepped easily through the open portal and savored the pitch darkness for a moment before he reappeared just in front of the washing room. Stretching lightly to ease the sleep out of his muscles, he pushed aside the door and walked over to where the sink rested in front of the extended mirror. Stripping off his gloves, he touched at where the blood had coated his bottom lip in perfect layers; most of the blood trailed down out of the left corner and slid down to his neck. This was just perfect. Because the one thing he needed to lose more of was blood.

Grabbing for the small glass he always kept aside, he filled it halfway full of water from the faucet. Unfortunately, the water barely slid down his throat before his body automatically rejected it. He barely turned in time as the water passed back through his lips; this time followed by a few more milliliters of blood. Choking slightly on the extra streams of blood, he spat out anything that remained before he pushed himself away from the red-coated sink bowl. Snatching the nearby hand towel, he wiped away any remaining blood spill on his flesh before he tossed it aside for later clean up; as much as he was a perfectionist when he came to cleaning things, he was really in no mood to deal with the hassle now. Stepping away, he walked back out of the room and through the changing room on the other side. He might as well walk around and try to get a better assessment on the damages. He knew there were a few walls destroyed and some of the floor tiles had been blasted from their places. If the damages weren't as bad as he was hoping then rebuilding it shouldn't take too long. Then again there was a difference in a hypothesis and an observation.

He didn't have to go far to see the extent of the damage. In fact, there seemed to be a very evident trail of it that connected them all together in a destructive path. There was wrecked furniture and counters everywhere; bodies and body parts were kind of slewed about and there was blood all over the place. Quite a bit of structural damage but it was mostly just surface mutilation which meant they could just pull up what was no longer useable and then replace it with another cover; it helped to avoid having to repair foundation damage, which was a pain to even think about. He paused slightly at the sound of something cracking underneath him and looked down to see a graveyard of glass shards underfoot. There was blood smeared all over the place in a dry red pool with smaller droplets that lead off to some place else in the room. That was a lot of broken glass. Where the hell did they find that much stuff to break anyways? Just how-

Aw damn.

Sighing, he turned away from the scene and headed back the way he came from. Of course, how could he have forgotten already? Backtracking through the mostly destroyed rooms, he paused slightly just in the doorway of his bedroom; partly because the walk ended up being longer than he expected.

She was still asleep but had managed to roll herself over onto her other side; one arm just barely hanging off the side of the bed. He couldn't help but to notice how the shirt was now slightly pulled around her figure and bundled up on one side to show off a bare curve. Walking quietly over to her, he touched lightly at her bandaged leg; taking note of how the white material was now even more blood-stained than before. Just the brush of his fingertips seemed to stir her slightly as she moved her leg to make contact with his own in a harsh collision.

"Hmmm…" she groaned as she slowly pushed herself onto her back. One hand came up to push her dark bangs from her face before her fingertips continued to trail down to trace the outline of her face. "Why are you awake so soon?"

"And why are you not?" he replied.

Carefully placing her hands behind her, she pushed herself away from the mattress and into a stiff sitting position. Most of her body felt numb, which couldn't have been a good thing, but at this point it was the least of her worries. Switching her attention back to him, she watched as he stood by the bedside and seemed to thinking off on something else. "What is it?"

"Your leg's gotten worse." he commented. "I was trying to think of all the different options we have on how to fix it. If it's not too severe, I should be able to heal it myself but if not, I'll have to get one of the healers down here, which could be awhile."

She looked down at the now blood-soaked bandage that had worked itself loose from around her leg. "It can't be that bad."

"Yeah well, I can't really take your word for it till I see it myself." he reminded as he carefully grabbed a hold of her legs and pulled them over the side of the bed; watching as the change caught her slightly off-guard and forced her to change her position. Keeping a hold on her injured leg, he held it out with one hand as he slowly pulled the bandages off with the other. Layers of layers of blood-stained gauze fell to the floor in crumbled heaps as deep gashes and heavy bruises scarred their way down her leg. "Okay, so it's not so much the injuries as much as it is the bleeding." carefully running his hand down part of her leg, he noted how the split flesh bubbled out small streams of blood for a few seconds before it ceased. "Some of these are really deep too, which isn't too harmful but it's not good either. We should've looked into healing these earlier."

"It's not life threatening…like yours was." she commented. "A little leg injury isn't going to put me out."

"True." he agreed. "But regardless, I don't want you bleeding all over everything. Blood is very difficult to get out of white."

"Well maybe if you didn't collect everything that was white."

"White is very spacious, okay." he sighed as he let her take her leg back. "Just wait here while I go get something from the lab that should be able to close up most of these injuries. And if there's anything else that should receive my attention, be sure to tell me."

He left the room before she could even get a word in about it. Shaking her head lightly, she looked over her leg before she carefully rubbed at her split side that had been wrapped up earlier. Aside from her leg and cut sides, the rest of her injuries were mainly just bruises and maybe some minor swelling here or there. It wasn't much to worry about so she couldn't understand why he was making a big fuss about it. If anything, he was the one in the more serious condition- not her.

"What are you thinking about?"

"How we're going to solve this." she answered; glancing over to where he was standing in the doorway.

"If you're talking about your leg, I have this experimental ointment that should be able to seal up most, if not all, of the cuts. You have to use it sparsely or else every piece of skin will seal together and then pretty much make like a massive collection of flesh that resembles a tumor." he started as he pushed himself off the doorframe and walked back in towards her. "However, if you're talking about something else…I'm not entirely sure how to solve that one."

She watched as he carefully tossed the ointment bottle onto the bed before he took one more look at the open gashes. "I didn't know either."

"I'm sure we'll figure something out sooner or later." he remarked as he retrieved the ointment bottle once more and tossed the lid aside.

The off-colored cream went on cold and burned slightly as it seeped into every open gash; there was also a tingling feeling as it sped up the healing process and sealed the flesh back together. His fingers carefully coated each gash one by one till every single one had been sealed back up. She watched as he narrowed his eyes slightly before he seemed to toss whatever matter troubled him aside.

"Were there any other injuries?" he questioned as he carefully ran his hand over the freshly healed skin; the only thing else that remained were small, white spotted scars that would eventually go away within a day or so.

"I wish you would stop worrying." she remarked.

"I am not worrying." he denied. "I'm just simply taking this on from a medical standpoint. The last thing anyone here needs is the risk of an infection and who knows what's already gotten into the injury just seconds after it was ripped open."

She shook her head lightly at his words as she started to tug the zipper down from the shirt collar. The material seemed to give in willingly to the release of tension as it sprung away the moment it was free. She could practically feel his eyes observing every inch of skin that became available to view. Slowly moving the zipper along, she felt it pull open as it reached the bottom of the shirt before she carefully peeled away the loose edges; keeping it together just enough to at least keep her breasts concealed. For the most part, her sides were lightly bandaged with very few blood spots showing up and aside from some minor scrapes elsewhere, and some bruising, she was fine.

"What did you do to yourself?" he sighed. For the most part, her injuries were minor and showed little sign of becoming infected but he wasn't too worried for her external wounds. Most of her abdomen and even down to her lower stomach seemed almost completely covered in black bruises. It was large clusters of them that seemed to merge together into one massive spot over her stomach. Now, regardless it could be some minor bleeding but after seeing some of those hits she took…well he couldn't necessarily rule out internal bleeding just yet. So far though, she didn't show any of the obvious signs of it which meant he either should keep an eye on her for the next few days or just pass it off as an overreaction.

"I would do worst to myself than just this." she remarked as she peeled off the bandages to examine the flesh splits down along her sides. It was evident to see where fingers had pressed into the skin and ripped it aside with such ease the flesh almost split open evenly. "The most damage aside from my leg is a few bruised ribs and that's about it."

"You should be glad that's all you escaped with." he spoke as he checked the cuts over before he slowly applied more of the ointment to them; watching as the skin peeled back together in just seconds. "Although, I'm quite surprised you escaped with the injuries that you did have."

"Expected more or less?" she questioned.

"I expected broken ribs and maybe an arm or two but I didn't quite expect the glass part." he answered as he moved from small cut to small cut. "But I guess with how well you're trained in combat, you adapted quite easily to taking massive amounts of damage."

"You use your skills to reduce the damage taken; I use my skills to take the full damage and reduce the pain." she replied; leaning back slightly on her arms as she felt him move to tend to the gashes on her other side now. "It works out in the end."

"For who exactly? Your leg or your ribs?"

She chuckled lightly and watched now as only white scars lined her sides. "What are you going to do about yourself then?"

"Don't turn this around to me." he replied.

"I'm not the one made of skin and bones right now." she reminded.

He sighed as he set his hands down by her sides and tucked his head into the curve of her neck. "It will solve itself out in time."

She moved one hand to cup the back of his neck as she played her fingers through his hair. "Are you talking about your health or us?"