Note:
Warning for violence now added, because there's some fairly gruesome stuff in this chapter.

Moment 026: A Royal Mess

The Castle is an impressive sight even with the massive hole where one wall has collapsed, but Piper's awe is admittedly dampened rather severely by the clusters of eggs that start to become visible as the structure grows nearer.

"I friggin' hate mirelurks," she mutters.

"Don't blame you," Preston comments from her right. "Damn things give me the creeps. Even the hatchlings are aggressive as all hell, and that hissing, clicking thing they do makes my skin crawl."

"Preston?" Piper pauses in going over her pistol one more time just because, and gives him a look. "Not helping."

He coughs softly and sends her a halfway-sheepish, apologetic little shrug, and from her left side, she picks up on the low sound of Blue's chuckling.

"And what are you laughing at, little miss ass-over-teakettle-into-the-fray?" Piper reaches out to give her friend's side a pinch, which earns her a hastily muffled, startled sound and a little jump that makes the rest of their ragtag group have to smother their smiles. "No heroics today, Blue, please? We're not talking two or three of these things."

"We're also not talking just the two of us," Blue reminds her gently, and catches her hand. "All you and I have to do is draw the suckers out so these guys can take them down, and if there are finer, more loyal soldiers than the Minutemen, then I haven't found them yet."

It's such a subtle thing, that compliment, and Piper both marvels and wonders if Blue even realizes what she just did; watching from the corner of her eye as backs straighten and chins lift, and hands grip weapons more securely as their followers take their places a few dozen feet from the stone walls; backlit by the sinking, afternoon sun as she and Blue leave them behind and move closer.

But Blue listens to her today, and is considerably more cautious than she has been in the past. Instead of running in guns blazing, she finds a perch halfway up the right side of the hole in the wall, and kneels there with her rifle while Piper takes up a similar position on the opposite side; leaving them out of the line of fire from behind, and hopefully also out of range of those massive claws.

Blue's rifle is still silenced, so it takes several shots and at least three dead mirelurks before the rest of them figure out what's causing the commotion. When they do, they charge as a group in a cacophony of shrill hissing that makes Piper shiver, and she is very, very glad both to be out of easy reach, and of the now audible shots that join in; both the sharp pops of her own pistol, and the reverberating bweens of the Minutemen's laser rifles. It drowns out that infernal hissing and clicking, though it does very little to hide the spurts of sickly, semi-opaque greenish liquid that shoots out of the creatures' wounds.

Gross. But as long as it stays on the ground with the mirelurks and their hatchlings, Piper is at least doing an okay job of swallowing down her bile in spite of the stench of rotten water and irradiated flesh that fills the air the more of them they kill.

It takes maybe twenty minutes before the majority of the mirelurks are dead and they advance into the actual courtyard to clear out the stragglers. The silence is sheer bliss to Piper's sorely tested hearing, and she feels the tension drain from her shoulders when the second gap in the ancient walls allows for a breeze that also manages to blow away the worst of the smell.

"Well." Blue comes up to her side, and pokes at one, dead mirelurk with the toe of her boot; her lazily smoking shotgun resting on her shoulder. "I guess we know what's for dinner."

Piper just looks at her; half-sick and half-horrified. "Please don't mention food again for at least another hour."

"Sorry." A familiar hand comes up to rub gently at the back of her neck. "You do look a little green around the, um..." A pause and a glance around them, followed by a twitch of Blue's eyebrows and purse of her lips. "Gills."

Oh, hardy-har-har. "Urngh." Piper slumps against the sturdy frame with a groan, and thumps her palm against a solid shoulder. "I'm gonna hurt you."

Blue's chuckle rumbles softly under her ear while a warm hand strokes her back, and they stay like that for several heartbeats, in a peace only broken by the occasional sound of a firing laser rifle as their Minutemen escorts take it upon themselves to eliminate the last few nests.

"Piper?" Blue's voice is low and right next to her ear; close enough that she can feel the slow rush of her breathing. "Did this seem... a little too easy to you?"

"Easy?" She straightens enough to look at her and see the thoughtful little furrow in her brow, and hears the faint sound of returning footsteps and the Minutemen re-enter the courtyard. "Wow, Blue. Way to downplay the effort."

"No, that's n-" Blue sighs and rubs at her own temple. "I mean that if this could be done with five people and some guns, then why wasn't it done years-"

The ground shakes.

"-ago." The last word is a bare breath as Blue's lungs empty themselves in a rush of air, and while Piper hasn't had the chance to turn, the fact that Blue's entire face goes ashen-fucking-white in the blink of an eye is probably a good indicator that she really doesn't want to. "EVERYONE INSIDE, NOW!"

Piper doesn't fight the strong grip on the back of her jacket, or the sharp yank that pulls her towards thick, stone walls and the open doorway in one section of them. She has never in her life heard actual panic in Blue's voice when it's at her General-volume, so she really doesn't need to look over her shoulder as she runs to know that whatever it is, it's bad on a whole new level.

But she does look, of course; over her own shoulder and past the sprinting Minutemen hot on their heels, and almost trips over her own feet in a mixture of shock and bone-chilling horror, because that... thing is dwarfing even the massive walls of the castle.

She has to catch herself against a rough corner when they clear the door because Preston is yelling something, and Blue shoves her clear of the opening a split-second before a massive spray of what mostly smells like bile rushes in and only narrowly misses them as everyone dives for cover.

"Blue!" Her pistol is in her hands for all the good it'll do against something that size, and her eyes are stinging as the stinking rush turns into a thick mist.

"I'm fine!" The voice is a little shriller than normal but still familiar, and works wonders on pushing down the panic that's rising thick in her throat. "For fuck's sake, stay down! That shit is pure acid and you do not want a direct hit!"

Chaos. Yells in different voices are echoing off the stone and making her ears ring. There are shots coming from rifles and shotguns and pistols and the most horrific screeching from outside, and she hears Blue roar a sharp curse just when the mist clears enough for her to see a claw the size of her own body closing around the double barrel of Blue's shotgun.

Blue dodges the second spray and curses again as she wrestles her gun free and raises it. And that's when the claw – caught in the spray and dripping from it – comes up and catches her across the face.

Everything slows to a crawl. The blow is enough to send Blue flying across the room with an odd, red tinge creeping in around everything Piper sees. Blue is screaming even before she leaves the ground; her skin sizzling and bubbling, and that chilling howl only stilling briefly when she hits the wall with a sodden thump and tumbles to the floor. She's clawing at her face and screaming again even as Preston yells and dives for her and catches her wrists, and her shotgun is sliding across the floor to bump against Piper's feet.

Red. Nothing but the purest, fiercest, angriest blood-red for she doesn't even know how long, but when it fades, she's straddling Blue's thrashing form and has only the vaguest memory of yelling for water and someone to help hold her down, but there's a can of the clean stuff in her hand and Preston is sitting on Blue's arms and keeping her head pinned in place.

"Cloth." Weirdly, the ruckus just fades until the only things she hears are the sounds originating within two feet; such as the tearing of fabric and Preston's shaky breathing when he holds a thick fold of ripped jacket over Blue's eyes. "Keep that down tight; don't let the runoff in there." She doesn't even hear Blue's agonized screaming; just sees her lips twist and her mouth open, and the way her skin and flesh is peeling and going from pink to red to yellow to black; singing and burning until the sick white of the bone beneath pokes through and Piper can see her teeth through the growing hole in her cheek.

She pours and Blue thrashes harder; sobbing brokenly into the air because while the acid hurts, having it rinsed off probably hurts more. The stench of burning flesh is thick and hot, but Piper forces down the horror and the fear and the overwhelming urge to vomit because there really isn't time for either of those.

"Somebody get me a stimpak." Her voice sounds chillingly calm to her own ears, but everything is instinct right now. "Preston, turn her head. I don't want her swallowing this stuff." He obeys, and the sodden water runs over or out of the hole in Blue's face; equal parts black and pink and orange, and altogether a nightmarish combination of sights and sounds and smells that will probably haunt her for years.

Later for that.

There are two stimpaks by her knee when the third can is empty and Blue's harsh, stuttering sobs have become soft, agonized cries, and Piper secures one of them with a upwards glance at the ashen, shaken faces of the two young Minutemen whose names she has yet to learn.

"You." She points to one of them. "Go one to one end of the wall and shoot. Get that things attention and when you have it, run back down and move up somewhere else. Keep it busy." He scrambles, and Piper turns to the second. "You guard the door. If a single hatchling makes it in here, I will personally shove it up your ass." He goggles at her and almost trips over himself in his effort to get up, salute and secure his rifle all at once, and Piper only spares a half-glance at the massive, severed claw that he kicks out of his way before both just fade from her focus.

"Hey." Carefully, she nudges Preston's hands back and secures the cloth; vaguely aware of the fact that she's silently crying herself as she gently wipes the last of the water from around Blue's eyes, but not really caring because at least it's clearing the effects of the acid mist away. "Blue? Look at me."

Blue does, and although those eyes are reddened from tears and acid mist; blinking and wide and wild with shock and fear, they're still beautiful.

"I need you to listen to me, okay?" Gently, Piper cups the undamaged side of her face, and is glad that it's the left side so she can do that and handle the stimpak at the same time. "We can fix this- shh, shh, it's okay." Her thumb stokes tenderly over the whole cheek, and while Blue whimpers brokenly into the air and even Preston sounds like he's crying, Piper pushes on. "This is fixable, I promise. But I need you to hold very, very still because if the stimpak is going to take the effect that it needs to, I have to hit something in your throat, and I really don't want to miss."

"Urtdsh," Blue breathes; her speech severely impaired by the gaping hole in her cheek and her eyes wide and pleading.

"I know," Piper whispers, and fishes a crumpled pack of gumdrops from her pocket and smooths it out because beggars can't be choosers. "I know it hurts, and I'm sorry, but I need to put this in your mouth, okay? You have to hold this against your cheek for me so the hole has something to regenerate over and nothing goes inwards." Blue gives a soft grunt low in her throat, and Piper finds a smile somewhere. "Those medical journals you keep digging out are biting you in the butt now, missy."

There's a rush of air from Blue's nose that's roughly equal parts fear and laughter, but she opens her mouth with a wince and a whimper, and Piper gingerly slips the folded paper inside and settles it between Blue's cheek and teeth; pulling back enough to check that the hole is fully covered. "Okay." She pushes gently at Blue's chin with two fingers until her mouth shuts again. "Swallow twice for me, then hold that paper where it is with your tongue and don't breathe until I tell you to. Alright?"

Piper prods at Blue's throat as it bobs one, twice, and waits for her jaw to shift subtly and her ribs to expand in a long breath. Then she prays and inserts the needle as gently as she can; pushing so, so carefully until there's the tiniest of gives that means that she's hit an artery. Then she injects – also slowly – and only breathes when the broken flesh starts turning pink a bare heartbeat later because that means that she hit the right one; the one that carries blood into the head rather than away from it, and is now bringing the healing serum of the stimpak right to where Blue needs it the most.

"Okay." She carefully retracts the needle again, and sets the empty stimpak aside. "Breathe, Blue. When you're ready, two more swallows and another deep breath, okay? I'm gonna give you two of these just to be sure."

"Mmf." Blue breathes, and her eyes are going hazy because the stimpak is also a very effective painkiller that works more like an anesthetic when so much of it reaches the brain. But her flesh is slowly knitting back together and that's really all Piper cares about. "Befrm mak 'e faf."

"Conking out on me, are you?" Piper teases shakily, but secures the second stimpak all the same. "Lazybones. Leave all the heavy lifting to me, why dontcha."

There's another rush of breath that sounds more like laughter this time. "Fowwy," Blue mumbles, and blinks sluggishly even as she –again – swallows twice; then takes in a long breath and closes her eyes.

She doesn't open them again even after the second injection is done, but she must feel the needle leave her skin, because it's only then that she starts breathing again; slow and steady so incredibly reassuring that Piper can't even find the words for it.

The holes are closing, Piper notes. Not with skin – not yet – but the stimpaks are working their magic, and there is pink, healthy flesh slowly building back up to hide paper and bone both, so it's really only a matter of time and a smidge of luck before Blue's face won't show even the barest of signs of her ordeal. So Piper climbs off of her, and leans back against the nearby wall and breathes easily for the first time in what feels like years. "Oh, my god."

"Miss Piper." Preston's voice is low and rough, and he wipes at his wet face before tearing off another bit of his jacket and using it to clean the few drops of blood from Blue's neck. "That was the damnedest thing I've ever seen. Well done."

"Ungh." Piper rubs at her forehead; everything crashing down on her and sending her into complete, mental and physical exhaustion from one breath to the next. "Something, something, mother of invention." She smiles tiredly at Preston's chuckle, and moves her head with a series of cracks and pops before taking a long, slow breath as the sounds of occasional shots and screeching from the outside now start to filter back in. "Is there a bed around here we can put her into? With a door that closes?"

"Should be," Preston agrees. "Want me to carry her?"

"Please." She couldn't lift Blue's heavier frame on a good day, and certainly not now where it feels like her legs will barely support her own weight. So really, rejecting Preston's offer would just be stupid, and Piper follows him down the hall on little more than sheer cussedness. She's barely even aware of dropping into the wide, dusty bed next to Blue's unconscious form; trusting him to take care of everything else as she passes out.