Pain. All Luba felt in that moment was immense pain as she dragged her almost lifeless body across the ground. She climbed into the portal and began to fall as was finally free of that nightmare. Then she closed her eyes, and passed out as her unconscious body fell through the dimensional plane.
"Huh…? Where am I…?" Luba thought to herself as she opened her eyes.
The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a bright light shining down into her face from the ceiling. She quickly realized that she was also laying down on her back on something that felt like an extremely stiff mattress, covered with a thin bed sheet. She had also found out that wasn't wearing her usual clothes anymore.
Luba tried her best to sit up, but was only met with excruciating pain. Granted, it was nowhere near as bad as the pain she had felt back during Solis and Venus's little squabble, but it was still enough to mostly prevent her from moving.
Luba then heard the sound of a door open and close from nearby, followed by soft sounding footsteps.
"It seems you're finally awake Luba." A feminine voice said as she grabbed a nearby remote and pressed it.
The surface Luba was laying down on slowly lifted it's top half up, bringing the tall woman up along with it as she finally was able to look around the room she was in.
It was a fairly large white room with a fairly large wooden desk with a basket on it to Luba's left located right next to the windows. To Luba's right was an IV that was currently hooked up to the tall woman's right hand.
She then looked down at the unfamiliar clothes she was wearing. It was a robe of a light blue color and it did a good job of covering the six foot, seven inch tall Luba. Her chest and back had been covered with bandages and her left arm was in a cast as well.
"How are you feeling? You were out for quite a while." The woman said, now at the foot of Luba's bed.
"Where… where am I?" Luba asked curiously as she continued to look around the room.
"You're currently located in the hospital Luba, and I'm your nurse." The woman said, now sitting on the foot of the bed.
Luba's eyes widened with surprise. "H-How!? How did I get here!?"
"Well exactly three days ago, an orange haired woman rushed you here in extremely critical condition, way, WAY worse than how you are currently." The nurse said. "We rushed you into intensive care and kept a close eye on your condition until you regained consciousness just now."
Luba looked down at her hands as she took in all the information that the nurse had to offer her.
"Wait… an orange haired woman carried me in?" Luba asked.
"That's right. She was about your height, had long orange hair, gigantic hips, glasses with rectangular lenses." The nurse said with her hands held out, exaggerating the size of the woman's hips on purpose.
Luba thought to herself as the woman her nurse was describing seemed more than oddly familiar to her. After a while, she finally realized who the nurse was talking about.
"Oh yeah! She was the woman I bumped into and who's books I accidentally dropped!" Luba exclaimed in her head.
"I assumed she was someone you were friends with, judging by the look of worry and concern on her face as she brought you in." The nurse said, getting up off of the bed.
"Yeah… I know her..." Luba said distantly.
To be honest, Luba was a bit surprised that the orange haired woman actually seemed worried about her condition despite the fact that they had only shared a brief conversation up to this point.
"More of your friends came by during the period that you were unconscious." The nurse said. "They left 'get well' gifts in the basket on the counter on your left."
Luba turned towards her left once again and saw that her nurse's words were true.
"Two apple flavored lolipops from Ludos, a potion from Lucy, a batch of blood red and black flowers from Lian and Maggi, a copy of the latest chapter of One Piece from Linn and a group photo of all of us from Chrys." Luba said as she looked through the basket, smiling that her friends cared about her enough to send her gifts.
"You should call them as soon as you get the chance Luba, I'm sure they're very worried about you." The nurse said. "Though it was nice to see that Ludos was doing better. The last time I saw them, they were on Death's Doorstep just like you were."
Luba suddenly gasped in shock and surprise at the nurse's words. There was only one incident that fit the description of the words Luba's nurse was saying.
"Who exactly are you?" Luba asked her nurse, now with a serious tone. "And how do you know about that incident?"
"Well I guess I should explain myself then. My name is Coral Pingringe." The nurse said. "I started work here in this hospital around four or five years ago and I was there when the ambulance brought in your sisters after their attempted su-"
"Stop. Please just… stop right there." Luba said, now visibly shuddering and on the verge of tears. "I don't ever want to be reminded of that horrible, horrible day ever again."
Coral saw as the machine reading Luba's vitals suddenly spiked up upon the mere mention of that event from years past.
"I'm… terribly sorry Luba." Coral said as she tried to calm Luba down. "I wasn't thinking when I opened my mouth."
"It's fine. Just… please don't mention it around me if possible." Luba said as her blood pressure returned to normal.
Coral silently nodded in understanding as backed off of Luba and went to go and grab some X-rays of the tall woman's body.
"I do have to say Luba, you are an extraordinarily fast healer!" Coral exclaimed as she returned with two X-rays of Luba's body.
Coral gave Luba the X-Ray of her body when she was first admitted into the hospital.
"This was how you looked when you first entered this place. As you can see, almost every bone in your upper half had been broken and your back was riddled with intense burns." Coral explained. "We honestly didn't think you'd live."
Coral then handed Luba a second X-Ray they had taken of her.
"And this was how you looked just a few hours ago. Massive improvement right?! All but some of your left arm bones were healed and the burns on your back went down significantly!" Coral exclaimed with excitement. "The doctors were stunned on how you made such a miraculous recovery! It's as if the gods themselves refused to let you die!"
"Huh…! I wonder what happened." Luba said, relieved that she had made a successful recovery.
"It doesn't matter how! You're alive, and that's all that matters!" Coral exclaimed. "Now I'm sure you'll want your alone time to rest up and call your friends, so I'll leave you be."
"W-Wait! How am I gonna call my friends!?" Luba asked.
"Lucy brought over your phone when your friends came over with the gifts. It should be at the bottom of the basket!" Coral said as she left the room and closed the door behind her.
Luba smiled and grabbed her phone, but her smile quickly faded as she thought about the events that led to her hospitalization.
"Solis and Venus really did a number on me… I wonder what they're doing now…" Luba said as she unlocked her phone. "Or if they even know that they injured me this badly…"
As the tall woman began making her calls to her worried friends, two familiar faces were sitting in the waiting area on the first floor. Normally they would be at each other's throats at the mere sight of one another, but shockingly, they weren't.
"I feel so… so terrible." Solis said as she looked down at the ground, gripping her knees.
"Normally I would come up with some sort of insult in response, but this time I am inclined to agree." Venus said, looking at Solis despairing.
"I'm glad you two realize that."
"That's the first step towards apology."
Both of the goddesses eyes widened as they recognized the two new voices. They looked up and saw the two teenage looking boys sitting in seats directly across from them.
They looked like brothers, with both of them sporting white heads of hair. One of them however, was not only clad almost entirely in a pink outfit and had black lines in his hair, but had a medium sized hole in his chest. The other boy had longer white hair and regular looking clothes.
They two looked at the goddesses like parents who were disappointed in their children.
"Listen… Lincoln… Lio... I'm really sorry about what happened with Luba." Solis started to say.
"Good. Because you should be." The pink clad teen named Lio said in response. "If you two were gonna have some planet destroying fight, you could've at least waited until Luba was safe and sound back in her home dimension!"
"You guys knew damn well that Luba was still in the vicinity of that fight." The other white haired teen named Lincoln said. "She may have put aside some of her time to get to know you guys better, but she's still a normal human and can get injured as easily as one."
"We probably would not have had this fight if Luba didn't have the incredibly foolish idea of wanting to hang out with the both of us at once." Venus said, gesturing to Solis.
Veins started to become visible on Lincoln's face as he gritted his teeth and clenched his fists in anger.
"Don't you dare try to pin the blame on her Venus!" Lincoln yelled. "She wanted you two to become friends, to end the feud you both have had!"
"Even if it is impossible for you both to become friends, it was definitely brave of her to at least try." Lio added on, chuckling. "She knew what the risks were and still made the attempt regardless, so she's got respect from me."
"But you two couldn't see what she was trying to do! All you two cared about was wanting to tear each other's guts out!" Lincoln continued to yell. "Because of that, you ended up almost killing her. Talk about being good friends."
Lincoln's last line hit Solis and Venus like a truck. They finally realized just how badly they messed up and how "good" of friends they were acting towards Luba.
Suddenly, Venus slammed her fist on the chair handle, breaking it off like it was nothing. She then let out a loud and frustrated growl and headed back to her universe.
"I guess I should go and get her." Lincoln said with a sigh as he got up off of the chair.
"Leave her Linc." Lio said, making Lincoln stop in his tracks. "I think she knows well enough that she messed up. Just leave her be for now."
"So now what should I do, my ronin?" Solis said, still sulking. "I wanna go and apologize to Luba, but I'm afraid that she's not gonna want to see me after what I did…"
Lio gave Solis a reassuring hug and pat on the back.
"Well… you'll never know until you try, my dear." Lio said. "Besides, you've got me and and Linc who'll be by your side when you apologize."
"Wait… really?!" Solis exclaimed.
"That's part of the reason why we came here in the first place, Solis." Lincoln said with a smile. "That, and I really want to see what this Luba looks like."
"Me too!" Lio exclaimed. "You've been telling me how much you've come to like this Luba woman, but never bothered to tell me what she looks like!"
"I did tell you! Don't you remember?" Solis said. "I said that she looked like one of your sisters but taller and more… mature."
"I won't believe it until I see it!" Lio said as he started to hover off of the ground.
"Lio, what are you up to now?" Lincoln said.
"Nothin', nothin'. I just wanna… y'know, break the ice! Make a good first impression!" Lio said, giggling. "Now away I go!"
Wasting no time, Lio flew around the air and proceeded to phase completely through the ceiling.
"Being a ghost means not taking the stairs I guess…" Lincoln said calmly.
Without saying a word, Solis immediately started running for the stairs, determination in her eyes as she started to climb.
"H-Hey! Wait Solis! You don't even know what floor she's on!" Lincoln said, running after her. "Or her room number!"
As Solis and Lincoln ran up the stairs and Lio was phasing through solid matter from room to room, Luba had finished making her calls and was now just laying down in her hospital bed.
"They seem to be alright, which is good…" Luba said to herself as twiddled her thumbs out of boredom. "Now I just wonder when I'll be able to get out of here."
Luba then looked up towards the ceiling, thinking about what Coral had told her.
"The first thing I'm doing when I'm getting out of here is finding that orange haired woman and giving her a proper thaAAAAAAAA-"
Luba yelled out in surprise as she felt something hard hit her ass.
"OW! Oh my DIO that hurt!"
Luba got back into her previous position on her bed, rubbing her now sore butt as she looked around to see who else was there.
"Who's there?! I know I heard your voice so there's no use in trying to hide!" Luba yelled out.
"What if I'm not trying to hide?" Lio said as he stuck his head out of the ground on the side of Luba's bed.
Luba's surprise at seeing a literal ghost was currently being suppressed by the pain that was still present in her body.
"Well then you Melon Hair, if you're not trying to hide then why don't you come out from down there?" Luba said, casually talking to the ghost on the side of her.
"Melon Hair?!" Lio exclaimed angrily as he came from the ground and started hovering in front of Luba. "I'll have you know that I have been modeling my hair like this for years! Constantly idolizing one of my favorite characters in anime."
"Does that explain the hole in your chest too?" Luba asked.
"No… that's something completely different." Lio said, getting defensive for a second before returning to his previous mood. "Now tell me how I wasn't able to phase through you!"
"How am I supposed to know? You're the one who's the ghost here!" Luba exclaimed.
"You're really snarky for a regular human being you know?" Lio said. "No wonder Solis really likes you."
Luba's eyes widened at the mention of the long haired, spunky goddess.
"Wait… did you say Solis?" Luba asked.
Before Lio could answer the tall girl's question, there was a knock at the front door.
"Come in!" Luba yelled.
The front door opened and before she knew it, Luba was being hugged by an excited hair of floof, slowly followed by Lincoln collapsing on the ground from exhaustion.
"Finally! After so… many… rooms…" Lincoln said, lying on the ground.
"Luba!! You're alive!! Thank god!!" Solis exclaimed with relief in her voice while hugging the tall woman.
"S-Solis! I didn't expect to see you here!" Luba exclaimed in response to Solis's smishing. "But you're kinda hurting me…"
"Oop! Sorry!" Solis said as she moved off of Luba and stood next to the floating Lio.
"Easy there honey, you don't wanna break Luba into three, giant sized pieces." Lio said. "You were right when you said she looked like one of my sisters though, I will admit."
"You thought I was kidding?!" Solis asked the ghost.
"N-No! I just thought you were overexaggerating just a tiiiiiiiny bit!" Lio responded.
Solis puffed her cheeks in slight annoyance. "Well I guess someone's not getting my special foot massages tonight."
Lio suddenly dropped to his knees (or tried his best to without clipping through the floor) in a begging position.
"Please! No! I'll do anything!" Lio exclaimed.
"Um… guys?" Luba asked as she sat upright on her bed. "Sorry to interrupt, but I'm really confused right now…"
Lio and Solis turned their attention towards the confused Luba.
"Ask away Luba, I'm more than willing to answer!" Solis exclaimed.
"Alright then… first off." Luba said as she pointed her free hand at the ghost in front of her. "Who exactly are you?"
"Me?" Lio asked. "I am only the most reliable ghost, biggest fan of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure ever and the loving boyfriend of one Solis Rhopalocera, Lio Loud of course!"
"Heh… I'm asking a dead Lio questions." Luba thought to herself.
"Ahhh… so I guess you're the boyfriend of Solis I've heard so much about." Luba said aloud with a smug smirk.
"What's… what's that face for Luba?" Lio said, chuckling nervously. "What's Solis said about me?"
"Only good things, about how reliable you are and how you'd do anything for her and vise versa." Luba said. "It's honestly really adorable."
Lio looked over at Solis, who was blushing and chuckling a bit.
"You really said those things about me?" Lio said, his eyes starting to water overdramatically.
"I wouldn't say it if it wasn't true, my little ronin." Solis said in response, giving Lio a big hug.
As Lio returned the hug, Luba cleared her throat to get the pair's attention back.
"There is one more question I have." Luba said softly.
Her body started to tense up with nervousness by itself as Luba thought of how to word her question.
"H-How come you decided to visit me Solis?" Luba asked the goddess.
Solis looked down to the ground, having dreaded this topic.
"Because… I'm sorry Luba. I really am sorry for what I did to you back in my universe." Solis started to say with a sorrowful expression. "The last thing I wanted was for you to get injured like this…"
Lio put his hand on Solis's shoulder, trying to comfort her.
"You see Luba… I don't have a lot of friends, so I try my best to cherish the few ones I do have." Solis said, her voice starting to break a little. "So now… I have a question for you Luba."
Luba just nodded silently in response.
"Do you… hate me Luba?" Solis asked.
"Of course I don't hate you Solis." Luba said, motioning for Solis to come closer. "And consider your apology accepted.
Solis's eyes widened. "R-Really? Even after I almost killed you?"
Luba nodded as she gave Solis a comforting hug.
"But… but why?" Solis asked.
"As long as you didn't mean to do it and you're truly sorry for what you did, then it's all good Sols." Luba said, rubbing Solis's back. "Plus… I know how it feels to be alone, with few friends to go to for aid.
Solis's grip on Luba tightened a bit.
"Then… can I ask you one more thing?" Solis asked.
"If it's about you and Venus trying to get on with one another, I understand. I won't do it again." Luba said.
"Thank you Luba." Solis said as a single tear dropped from her eye.
Solis then looked into Luba's soul as they were still in a tight embrace.
"Even though her words are genuine, I can still sense some fear in her heart." Solis thought to herself. "At least I know she doesn't hate me…"
Time passed and sooner than later, the clock turned to 8:00pm, meaning visiting hours were over. Luba waved goodbye to Solis and Lio as they carried the unconscious Lincoln and went back to their universe.
Two hours had passed and the hospital had quieted down a fair bit. Luba's room was covered in darkness, with the only source of light being the moonlight shining from above.
Luba herself lay comfortably on her bed right next to a half eaten apple on her desk, about ready to drift off to Sleepytime Junction. She reached over to grab her phone to set an alarm for her to wake up, only to feel something else lay on top of the mobile device.
"What is this?" Luba said as she grabbed the foreign object.
Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be a piece of paper, but it didn't look like any paper Luba was familiar with. It moved like paper sure, but it felt more like sandpaper, not to mention that it looked like an old scroll from a fantasy movie.
There was text on it, but it wasn't in English. In fact, it didn't resemble any type of language Luba was familiar with. That was, until she got to the bottom of the page.
"Earthling transition on the back."
Luba flipped over the paper, relieved that it was actually in English and began to start reading.
"Dear Luba. Hello. This is Venus. I decided to write to you to tell you that I am truly sorry for what I have done. I injured you when it was not my intention to do so and I realize that if we are to become more optimal friends with one another, that is not the way to go about it. Once again I am truly sorry and I apologize. From Venus."
"Aww… thank you Venus." Luba said to herself.
"You are very welcome Luba." Venus responded.
Luba almost jumped out of her robe out of pure surprise and shock.
"Venus? You're here?" Luba said, trying to keep as quiet as possible.
"Yes. Did you not read my message on the bottom of the letter?" Venus asked.
Luba looked over back at the letter Venus wrote.
"P.S: I realized that just writing this may not sound genuine, so I will be coming over to apologize in person as well."
"Oh." Luba said embarrassingly. "My thumb must've been covering it up."
"That's okay. I just wanted to say that I am sorry in person." Venus said, moving to the foot of Luba's bed to bow to her.
"H-Hey… there's no need to bow Veen." Luba said.
"There isn't?" Venus asked. "Then how else am I supposed to show that I am sorry?"
"A simple hug would do the job just fine." Luba said, outstretching her free arm. "Don't hug me too tight though, I'm still injured."
"Alright then." Venus said as she gave Luba a hug.
"See? That wasn't so bad was it?" Luba asked the purple haired goddess.
"No… I guess it was not." Venus admitted. "Does this also mean that our friendship is still intact?"
"Yes, yes it does." Luba responded.
Although Venus didn't show it, Luba's words made the violent goddess just a touch bit happier.