Wowza, its me. This is gonna be a real short little story for Mostima because she is SSS tier. Next part is already done and edited and I'm working through the final of what I want to do here, after that I might write some more for this depending on factors.
Anyways, hope you enjoy. I could never get this start to feel quite how I like it but eh, maybe its good enough for anyone that reads this.
A gasp of air.
"Mostima!"
A body shot up from where it had been laying, looking for the blue-haired fallen angel he called out for.
"Where are you? Are you oka-" His words caught in his throat as his eyes took in the sight before him, or rather the near lack of.
An infinite darkness spread out in every direction, but its imposing force did not cover anything. The blanket of water that the Doctor laid on was proof of that, it spread out seemingly forever like an ocean's horizon, slowly moving on as if pulled by a hidden moon. A quick glance down revealed that the Doctor could see himself just as well as the water he now stood on. An odd fascination took hold as he tried to make sense of the world he was in. He took a couple steps forward, but the water did not react to the movement, instead continuing its journey to wherever it was going. He scraped a foot against the ground trying to get any sort of response, but it was as if a thin layer of glass hovered just above the water's surface stopping anything from touching it. Curious, he bent down to exam the mysterious blue liquid.
The Blue liquid.
An image of long, flowing, blue hair flashed across the Doctor's vision and shot up from where he been kneeling to look at the water.
"Mostima!" He called out but there was no reply. Not even his voice returned to taunt him of his sudden solitude.
There was nothing here but the gentle movement of the ocean below him. That would not stop the Doctor, he had to find a way out. He had to get back, there's no doubt she needed his help.
"Hello!?" He yelled into the darkness once more, spinning back and forth. Searching for any change, a person, an exit, a light, an enemy, anything that could potentially reveal something about his current circumstances.
"Hello." A voice responded from behind him.
The Doctor spun on his heel to face the unknown man, entity. He looked at the reflection of himself… No that wasn't him. There was no orange on his coat. His hand dropped quickly to grab the sidearm at his side, that wasn't there. He only let the moment of surprise take control for a second before grabbing for the combat knife stored away in his coat. Except that was also missing.
"Honestly, I would normally be mad at your reaction if I didn't think it was reasonable response." The stranger commented.
The Doctor halted his search for a weapon and stared at the copy that stood a couple meters away. "Who are you." He sternly questioned.
"There's kinder ways to start your greeti-" It started.
"I don't care for your humor." The Doctor cut off the Alter. "Answer me. Where am I? How do I get out? Where is Mostima?"
Silence sat between the two doctors. One stood tense, ready to spring into action at any moment, while the other casually stood with his hand tucked away in his coat's pockets.
A sigh left the orange Doctor, "I can tell you for sure that you don't want all those answered."
"Answer me." The Doctor replied, the tension never easing from his body.
"Alright." The Alter shrugged. "But you could answer most of these yourself, if you took a second to recollect your head instead yelling at me."
The original Doctor hesitated, not wanting to follow the other one's suggestion, but there wasn't much of choice with orange doctor being the only lead in the barren land, "Recollect what?"
"What you were doing right before ending up here."
The orange copy patiently waited as the Doctor slowly began to relax a bit since neither had yet to make any hostile moves. The Doctor let his thoughts reach back just enough to remember but not enough to lose focus on the man in front of him.
Rhodes Island had accepted a contingency contract. A Reunion incursion attempting to unsettle the Lungmen population. They had been using the backstreets to target warehouses and destroy the resources housed there. Ransacking small stores to scare the residents and get supplies. Nothing good as per usual of Reunion.
Soon after arriving, the Rhodes Island task force had managed to trap the Reunion forces in a warehouse during one of their raids. Hoshiguma and Ch'en held the main entrances with a few others, drawing the attention from entrenched forces inside. Knowing there would be other exits, the Doctor had decided to move around the warehouse with three of his operators to secure any doors and to potentially cause a distraction for the LGD duo powerhouse to breach. Liskarm and Franka had been left at a single exit door they had found alongside the side of the building and were told to wait for his orders to cause havoc, while Mostima and the Doctor continued circling around. That's when the contract went sideways.
"Go on."
"What?" The Doctor asked.
"I said go on. You're almost at the key part."
"How do you know what…"
"Do you want the answers to your questions or not, keep going."
Again, the Doctor was hesitant to continue since the already mind-bending situation had stepped into cosmic levels of dangerous with the orange doctor seeing into his mind, but… he had already revealed that hadn't he? When he had first told him to remember.
"Fine." The Doctor relented.
Rhodes Island had not been fast enough to entrap the entirety of the Reunion forces, which was made obvious when Mostima and the Doctor nearly collided with a small group of Reunion soldiers. Two masks stared into each other as the Doctor barely stopped himself from running into a Senior Caster Leader, the one most likely in charge of this Reunion band.
A sharp gasp was heard from underneath darkly clothed, glowing blood red, clocked infected as he recognized, "The Doctor!" Ominous red energy built in his hands immediately, "Kill him for Reunion!" Some of the soldiers behind him began panicking as they realized that the arts attack was guaranteed to hit everyone there due to the close proximity.
"Doctor!" Mostima yelled to the Doctor, "Get back!" but her cry fell on deaf ears. He was already leaping at the charging caster. A sharp pain torn into his abdomen, but it didn't deter his momentum. Within a moment of the caster calling out, the Doctor was already on him.
But the senior caster had earned his title for a reason. As the doctor collided with the caster the world was engulfed in the red of the released arts.
"Suffer!"
...
...
...
"I'm not dead." The Doctor stated firmly.
"Oh? Interesting start. Why is that?" The orange copy questioned.
"I knocked his aim off, so at least I wouldn't take the full brunt of it and…" The original looked around at the emptiness surrounding the two, "I have a feeling I would not be here if I was dead."
"That's fair, I suppose. But that doesn't leave you in a good position, does it?"
"How so?"
"If you are still alive, would you not be in the hands of Reunion?"
The Doctor tilted his head, as he looked at the other quizzingly, "No, Mostima was… is there? Argh! Mostima was there to clean up, I'm fine." He got out, feeling once again frustrated at the unknowns of his current predicament.
The orange Doctor bent over into a random fit of laughter as if he were suddenly possessed, "Hahahaha… Maybe… Maybe so." He said between his laughter.
"Maybe? Why are you laughing?" A wave of anger and worry washed through the Doctor because of the ridiculing laughter.
"Ooooh…" The copy straightened himself out and looked into the other's helmet. "Looking back, I just thought it was obvious that you killed her."
The door to the hospital room opened slightly to let a nurse lean in. A Rhodes Island patch sewn into the shoulder of her white coat was the only symbol of association.
"Miss Mostima." The nurse started as she looked at two inhabitants of the room. A man wrapped in dozens of bandages laid underneath the covers of the only bed. Various machines stood around him, such as the heart monitor that maintained a steady beat during his sleep. Beside the bed sat the fallen angel the nurse named. There was no acknowledgement of her name being heard as she continued to silently watch the Doctor's sleeping body, but the nurse continued anyways.
"Dr. Kal'tsit would like for you to visit the patient at a later time, we need to check for signs of any potential Oripathy that may have been missed during our first analysis." Again, there was no response from the Caster as she quietly sat beside the Doctor.
"Miss Mo-"
"I heard you." An annoyed sighed escaped Mostima, "I'll be out in a few minutes."
"A few minutes then." The nurse accepted her request before gently closing the door.
"I hate hospitals…" Mostima began a few minutes after the nurse had left, her finger lightly traced the bandages covering the Doctor's arm. "Why'd you do it Doc. It's your fault we are stuck in this boring place."
There was no response from the unconscious man, but she responded anyways, "Shut up, I can hear you saying, 'I'm not forcing you to stay'," She accused.
Silence maintained the conversation as the fallen angel looked over the dozens of bandaged wounds for the hundredth time.
"You knew very well that I could have taken that arts. I wouldn't be much of a Caster if I couldn't deal with a taking a little arts myself. Were your thoughts consumed with protecting me? Maybe this relationship is too precarious to continue, not with the risk of you doing dumb moves like this again, but it's already too late… You've ignited a spark I thought I had extinguished long ago."
She gently grasped the hand laying next to her, making sure to intertwin her fingers so that his lifeless hand wouldn't let go.
"You knew why I took requests that sent me across the world, so that I wouldn't make any permanent bonds. I was happy on my own exploring Terra; I didn't need any friends here. I could easily do without them. Still, there was always something new and exciting to return too at Rhodes Island, including the enigma that was you. No matter how many times I tried to kindly push you away, you always kept coming back. You would wait for my return, sometimes with a bundle of snacks to eat as we talked about my trip and before I knew it the hours were flying as fast as the days did out there. Then I found myself wanting to return more and more while on those long trips. Its become harder to stay out there and now I can't explore the wonders this world has to offer without wondering what it would be like if you were there to enjoy it alongside me."
"Aaaagh." Mostima groaned as her head fell to rest against the Doctor's arm.
"Even while in a coma you still find ways to be annoying." She spoke into the bed.
A few moments past as the fallen angel laid there against the Doctor, a feeling of calmness washing through her from the warmth of his arm against her head.
"I have to go Doc. Before Kal'tsit forbids me from seeing you." Mostima said as she stood. "I'll see you soon."
Giving the Doctor one last look she turned for the door.
"Ah…" A sudden thought interrupted her exit. "I guess you do deserve this for protecting me."
Turning back to the Doctor, the fallen angel leaned down and brought her face down to his. Her lips gently pressed against his cheek in a thankful kiss, which she held for a moment before pulling away. Without another word, she left the room making sure to not look back, least she get caught in another wave of emotions.
