Slain Among Ice and Fire

by EnergyMageFrea

The truth behind what drives the SaberTooth Guild to be as ruthless and driven as they are has never been clear. Behind the stony face and heartless actions, lay a Guild of people who's true selves are kept hidden, for sake of pure fear of the Master. The only people who know the truth are those in the Guild itself, afraid... and prisoners, in their own ways. Like she was, trapped.

35. Chapter 35- Forgive

Chapter 35

Forgive

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters, only my own OC's and Ideas

.:+:.

She got wrenched underneath pitch black waves, her whole body dragged down rapidly into the depths with no end and no chance to even catch a breath or try and save herself. She gasped at the painful jerk of her body against the tension of the water, salty, foul-tasting liquid flooding her mouth and pooling into her lungs before she had any mind to stop herself- and then she was choking, and suffocating, and it hurt.

Her body burned cold and hot all at once, fire and ice searing through her veins and tacking on to the agony brought with the water crushing her lungs as brutally as it was. The waves and current wrenched her down harder into an unending depth, battering her constantly and adding on layers of damage, upon layers of damage to her already fractured form.

She wanted to fight it, she tried to fight it- struggling violently against the water, desperately searching for a way up to the surface she couldn't see, a way out of it's cruel grip- anything. She needed to get out, she needed to get free, stop getting hurled this way and that- she needed air, she couldn't breathe.

She got pulled downward again, her spine aching for the force of it and an awful splintering of the bone of her ribs crackling in her ears when she hit a wall of water so hard, it was almost solid. She coughed, water flooding her lungs all over again and settling in heavier, suffocating her all the more and putting pressure on her damaged ribcage.

She couldn't get out... But she had to get out.

It hurt to keep fighting it, it hurt so bad. It was way too hard, the water way too strong, and with her lungs filling with liquid and not the air she so badly needed- her attempts to struggle against it were quickly getting weaker. Her body didn't want to do what she needed, her limbs ached and were getting too heavy and painful to move at all. She could almost feel her muscle fibers and tendons snapping. Feel her bones fracturing, the harsh edges separating and grinding against each other in a chilling, agonizing way. Her body wanted nothing more than to just give in and cease it's resistance, if only to lessen the pain that came with trying... And quickly her mind wanted nothing more than to stop too, the agony was derailing any sense of rational or lucid train of thought, and she was losing grip on reality way, way too fast.

Hell, this couldn't have been reality- it had to be a dream right...?

... I... I don't know... It feels so... Real...

She couldn't remember anything, or what happened. There were fractured bits and pieces of things, visions and memory and images- all of them so real and vivid, but still she couldn't pick out what was real and what was made up of her mind being consumed and pulled apart. All of them were awful though, full of death and destruction, people she knew and couldn't place, getting ripped apart, burned alive, shredded to pieces... just like she was, being dragged through each round of too-real nightmare followed by this endless drowning, and it all kept coming on a never-ending loop. From a hundred years worth of fractured, whirling torment of ash and blood- to suffocating and getting battered by vicious waves. And each time she ended back here in the water, the darker it was getting, and the further down she fell.

Another bout of being rammed into had her lungs full up with water, and with nowhere for it to go even if she had the faculties to try and expend it again. And she certainly had no air to replace it, even if she could... And with every mile further she got sucked under, and each degree of the black around that became more like a lightless void- her conviction on that one thought kept slipping.

... I... I'm sinking... S...shit...

She had to get out. If she didn't, there'd be no end to the falling, and eventually there would be no coming back, no breathing, no feeling- nothing.

She couldn't sink all the way, she knew she couldn't. Even with everything being hazy, and unable to focus, and her mind and body in tatters- she knew she couldn't let herself hit the bottom, not for the finality that lurked there.

She couldn't drown, it was the one thing she was sure of... But fuck

T... This is torture...... E...everything...hurts... My entire body is... On fire...

The longer she spent in the water, the more the pain became less like something born of a beating- but more a deep, terrible ache in her very core. While that ache settled in, her mind couldn't pull together anymore, she couldn't focus- and trying to do so was steadily sapping away any amount of strength and will to try that she had.

It stripped it, all the way until she only barely managed to keep hold of that one single thought- and even that was quickly replaced with confusion and sheer uncertainty, making her mind battle between the two and struggle to keep herself grounded on not getting sucked into the depths. She just... J... Just... I...

... I feel like... I... I feel... S...sick...

... W...what the...? ...w... What... What happened...?

... Am... I...?... O...oh no...

... I'm... Getting pulled... U...under... I... Can... Can't...

She got wrenched down again, the world around her pitch black now and she couldn't see anything anymore. Not herself, not the water, nothing. Everything was just unending black, and it was closing in fast... But that last wrench downward in an ocean she couldn't see around her?

... W... Wait... T...there's...

The violent downward tugging of her body got halted for half a second, her figure stalled in the hungry waters while the creeping numbness in her limbs receded enough to realize that...?

... Someone's... Holding on to... My arm again... They... They won't...l...let...go... B...but...?

... It... Doesn't h...hurt...? ... It's not... B...burning or... Or cold...

... B...but... W...who...?

"... I need you... come back, Hora... I... I can't... losing you... I can't..."

... T...that... I can barely... Hear...it...b...but... That... That sounds like...?

"... I can't take it... You ...die... P... Please... W...wake up..."

... R... Rogue...?

...s..shit...

... He... He's... Crying... But I... I can h...hardly... Hear him...

... R...rogue... I... I'm... I'm sorry...... I'm... T...trying... It... It's... J..just... H...ard... I...

"... Please... P...please come back..."

... Damn it... I... I... Can't... P...pull myself up... A...all the way...

... I'm sorry... I... I want... To... I'm... Just...

... I'm... Tired...

... P...please... I... I am...I a...am...T...try...ing... I'm... So...rry...

... D...don't... C...ry...

.:+:.

The sound of wheezy, painful coughing jerked him out of a roiling dark sea filled with nothing but heartbreak, sorrow, and nightmare. Rogue started slightly, red eyes snapping open while his head and vision whirled for a moment as the exhaustion that had dragged him to the fringes of that sea remained a million pounds on his mind still, and he had a hard time adjusting to the world again... It was filled with harsh orange light from the setting sun, the next day and night already come and gone- and he felt panic surge anew, hating himself for having dozed off again somewhere between before the sun was setting and now. And worse still was to be woken by the sound of coughing- to which would assuredly end with retching up thick scarlet liquid, and his heart picked up, tense and instantly on edge.

He leaned forward out of the chair, shaking hands fumbling instantly and the blurriness and dark spots on his vision receding slowly- and for now only enough he could sort of see Hora had rolled over halfway, her body shuddering with each cough that gripped her, curling in on herself slightly and agonized under each sputtering breath jostling her. One of Rogue's hands found her shoulder to steady her while the other pushed her bangs back from her face, her arms pulling into herself and sputtering a few seconds more, but only just- thankfully there came no spatter of red up her throat, though honestly Rogue wasn't paying that much mind either.

His eyes had locked to his hands, a pang of fear rushing through him to feel the slight cool of her skin under his hands, a cold sweat sticking to her flesh and clashing with the warmth of his own- and for a second he was terrified that it meant another bout of icy cold was going to grip her in the midst of Over-Drive, as it had before. His mind was five seconds from running away with him on a track filled with sheer fear, his hold on her shoulder and against her cheek shuddering as he sucked in a sharp breath of air- only for it to stall in his throat along with the rest of him when something caught his wrist in a trembling, shaky hold. And one that almost instantly got heavier when... when she failed to keep her own weight up, and ended up pulling his hand on her cheek away a bit with a small grumble, her hold on his wrist remaining only just.

Rogue froze, red eyes going wide as his attention snapped off his hand on her shoulder and toward her face, his heart leaping and stopping all at once when Hora's expression pulled faintly, another mumble escaping her as she rolled back off her side a bit and blinked her eyes open slowly. They only opened halfway, her dark blue gaze bleary and still with a feverish glaze clouding them. She was clearly having a hard time keeping her eyelids up, but she persisted regardless, looking up slowly to meet his red gaze, her breathing slowly leveling out of the panting the coughing brought on and she could catch her breath again.

"... R... Rouge...?" Hora stammered quietly, her voice wispy and rough- enough she had to swallow against it, her eyes dropping again for a second as she grumbled a bit under her breath, her hold on his wrist slipping slightly... And Rogue?

"... H... Hora..." He whispered, his face going from shocked and terrified to breathless, disbelieving, relieved- and utterly overjoyed in no time at all. And in less time than that, there were tears falling from his eyes, heavy, rapid, and with no intent to stop. His hand on her shoulder moved to her cheek, holding her face shakily and his other hand she had hold of shifted, forcing her to release her grip on his wrist and finding her face too. His hands brushed her cheeks, pushing her hair back a bit more and uncaring of the sticky sheen of sweat clinging to her skin and smearing against his- he was a bit too preoccupied with pushing himself out of his chair and onto the bed beside her.

"Y-Your... Your fever's gone d-down..." Rogue breathed, the tears spilling faster, his hands shaking terribly as he snaked his arm behind her head, pulling her up just a smidge and into him, his forehead bumping against hers and his tears splashing against her cheeks.

Hora blinked slowly at it, her hands fumbling slightly to find traction holding on to his shirt, her eyes falling closed as he shifted more still, his hands leaving her head and wrapping around her shoulders and neck, gently, but tightly too. It hurt a bit, honestly- her body felt heavy and ached terribly, with sharp bursts of pain flaring around her ribs and in her chest... But she didn't react to it, she hadn't the energy, nor did she really have the mind or faculties to... She... She couldn't focus, or pull her thoughts together. It was harder than hell to even focus on what he was saying... Or... Or just focus on Rogue at all.

Rogue, who was crying still... Sobbing really, and quite hard. His whole body was hitching against her, his arms shaking, the tears endless, and he was almost choking on them and the shuddering breaths escaping him. She could feel it, and hear it, even with her head whirling and her focus waning- and it hurt more in her center for it.

"... H...Hora... Y... You're awake... I... I've been s-so scared..." He whispered shakily, his breath washing against her face hot and shuddering on the air. Hora blinked again, still struggling to focus, her mind running terribly slow and it felt impossible to hone in on just about anything... she couldn't even make out where they were, or anything around them- and still Rogue was so out of focus.

... Everything is out of focus, my head won't... I can't... Think...

... I... I feel... So heavy... A...and out of it...... I don't remember... Anything... What the hell... Did happen...?

... He's... Crying so hard...

... C... Crap... Over-Drive must have... G...gotten really bad... I...

Hora grit her teeth, sucking in a small, sharp breath of air and cringing slightly as a wash of deep, throbbing pain gripped her whole body a bit tighter than it already was. And it rode in on the back of a shiver that ran through every inch of her, rattling her very bones.

She was hot, and cold all at once- everything ached so badly. Her head kept whirling, and even Rogue's figure hitching as he cried and held on to her had her broken body jostling a bit too much, even with as faint as it was.

... F... Fucking... H... Hell... I feel... Like... crap...

"... I... I've been terrified the whole time... B...but... y-you're awake... you're awake, Hora..."

... D...damn it...

"... R... Rogue..." Her voice sounded awful. It was wispy, and it so ragged she nearly ended up sputtering and coughing again... Hell, it almost took everything she had to get his name out before her voice broke, another shiver running through her whole body and it was ridiculously painful. So much so she ended up hissing for it, her voice cracking a bit and her teeth gritting against it.

Rogue flinched a little when he felt her body go rigid against him, and the shaky hiss she let out in the quake of that shudder that ran through her was almost just as painful for him to feel in his arms. He pulled back a bit, his eyes full of tears and fear now too when he saw the pain and discomfort swimming in those fever-glazed blue eyes of hers. She wasn't focused on him really, her mind couldn't manage it just then and he saw more than just the pain and discomfort- he could see the confusion, and even little bits of fear all bundled together by sheer strain.

It was like a million pounds of pain and agony suffocating her, and all of that tripled by the infection and sickness still gripping tight. It was crushing her, sinking deep into her bones and her mind, weighing everything down and making it impossible to think- let alone simply breath. And with each second she spent barely awake, and quickly losing any small smidgen of focus or lucidity, it was crushing her further, the pain, sickness, confusion and delirium mashing and blurring all together in the most awful way imaginable.

Rogue could see Hora's attention on him quickly drifting away and getting overtaken by all of it- all the awful feelings, the discomfort, the confusion, and just how hard it was to try and stay focused at all. In mere moments she was getting totally crushed, and her fight against that suffocating weight was futile, and utterly exhausting. Then adding on that exhaustion to all the rest of it was just way more strain on an already much too strained mind, body, and soul- and she couldn't do it.

All of it just came crashing down over her all at once, and it was too much.

Rogue grimaced, his stomach knotting a million times more than it already was and eyes flashing as he watched the tears begin to slowly trickle down her cheeks. A low wince more like a moan escaped her, only to get broken by a half-sob as her eyes dropped halfway out of sheer exhaustion. Her body hitched again in a shaky sob that never got all the way to fruition, the tears spilling a bit faster and her hold on his shirt loosening as her senses were further and further buried underneath it all. And soon enough, that was all there was- nothing but the sensation of drowning, of being overcome, and her whole world hampered with emotion, pain, and a sense of struggling she couldn't escape or handle the pressure of.

She meant to ask what happened, with the Dragons, the Eclipse Gate, everyone- if everyone was safe, and okay... And she even meant to apologize and tell him she was sorry for however long she had been hurt, and how bad it probably had become. She wanted to apologize for making him worry, and cry, and a million other things- but all of that got flattened and ground into dust under the way she felt, and how harshly it all came to slam into her in an instant.

It was all too much- it was utterly overwhelming. All she could hone in on right in that moment, was how terrible she felt, and she couldn't deal with it in any reasonable, rational sense. It just took over, and her mind felt like it was bending and cracking underneath it... It just... She... I...

"... I... I don't... F...feel... Good..." Her voice came out hoarse, the whimper just barely loud enough to be considered words- but he heard them nonetheless, and he swallowed hard, his heart nearly breaking in two for the thousandth time.

"... I know..." Rogue murmured softly, forcing his voice to be as steady as he could, and shoving away the sobs still stuck in his throat. He managed to sound sort of calm as he did it, but his voice was still rather rough and he couldn't help it- it was something of a miracle he even managed steadiness at all with how tight his throat felt. He swallowed again against the sensation, pausing half a second more to do his best and stop his hands from shaking so much, and willing some level of calm to become reachable.

She felt awful enough on her own, and him freaking out was only going to affect her and make that awful all the worse. He didn't want to add on to the distress and whatever else, he needed to get ahold of himself, be as calm as he could. He needed to be that for her just then, even when it was harder than hell for him to manage even a smidge of collectedness.

Rogue let her go slowly, easing her back down the bit he'd pulled her up and back against the bed as gently. His hands glided faintly over her body as he pulled them out from under her, one of them finding a steady place on her shoulder for a moment, and the other moving up to her face. He gingerly brushed away the tears, and then a few stray tendrils of her hair sticking to her face from the sweat, before that hand found it's final place and came down lightly on the crown of her head. He started rubbing the top of her head gently, red eyes flashing as she sniffed a bit and seemed to hold her breath in pain, or just biting back a sob- he didn't know which. But he did his best not to let himself flinch or frown when she let out a hiss, and then another half-sob came and he had to force a breath.

"... Shhh... shhh... It's alright... just breathe, Hora..." Rogue hushed her softly, his one hand still rubbing the top of her head tenderly while his other reached down to grab hold of her hand. He held to it lightly, but he kept the grasp just firm enough that she could feel the weight of his hand in hers, and hopefully it would help ground her and calm her down just a little. He felt her fingers twitch in his, weakly so as her breath hitched again and her eyes fluttered, clearly fighting to keep them open but having a hard time managing it.

"... R... Rogue...?" Her voice came again, even wispier and rougher than before, and much more confused. She was sinking fast, way faster than he liked, and he swallowed against it, shaking his head once and giving her hand a tiny little squeeze.

"... shhh, shhhh... stop for now..." He hushed her, "... I know you don't feel good Hora... I'm sorry... but you're alright, I promise... this'll pass... you're gonna be okay..." He assured softly, and without really knowing for sure if it was true- he hoped so, anyway... but right at that moment, it was all he could think of to say just to get her to relax a bit.

Her breathing hitched again in a sob strangled by a wince of pain, and he bit the inside of his cheek, continuing with running his hand over her head and through her hair in constant, slow, steady rhythm.

"... you're alright, just breathe Hora..."

Her eyes fluttered shut again and this time they stayed that way, despite any attempts to get them open again. There were still little flecks and bits of tears left to roll slowly down her cheeks, but once they did none came to replace them... Though more for lack of energy to keep crying, as opposed to really calming down. She was shaking still, her breaths ragged and broken by the beginnings of sobs still swimming in the back of her throat, and she was fidgeting under his hands too- little things, involuntary, feverish twitches and jerks where her mind was struggling to keep her awake and away from drifting, but could only just manage it.

It hurt to see it, and just how fast she faded and fell into only barely conscious delirium hounded with a million terrible feelings and sensations. She was hot still in his hold, the fever still there even though it had gone down a little- but it was still high. And the sickness it was born from was still heavy enough to keep tormenting and chipping away at any scraps of lucidity she might have had. It was keeping her from sleep, trapping her in a state just barely on the edge of consciousness, tipping back and forth precariously on an unending loop. It made it impossible for her to get any amount of rest or peace- and she needed it, badly.

But true unconsciousness and the relief of that oblivion wasn't coming to claim her, so it just amped up the overwhelming feel of it all. And all Rogue could do was sit there and watch it happen, murmuring gentle words and assurances, but powerless otherwise.

"... It's okay... You're gonna be okay... I promise... You're alright Hora, just rest... I'm not going anywhere... It'll pass in time... You'll feel better eventually... I'm staying right here until this is over... You're alright..."

Hora didn't hear most of it, not really. She couldn't make out the words or what was going on, but the tone and gentleness of his voice and of his hands on her head holding on to her were warm, and soothing. Even around a storm of nothing but hurt, confusion, suffocating and whatever else- the sheer tenderness of his touch and his tone made it through, and helped to dull down everything else, at least a tiny bit. It didn't get rid of it all the way, but it was something to try and hone in on and focus away from the awful... Though she felt like she was still drowning and with no sense of anything for about a million years.

But he was still there a million years later, even as her mind kept being unable to settle- murmuring things, patting her head, hushing her. After awhile the words and the assurances came less frequently, making his voice quieter and a bit more far away for it... But he was still there, and with ever his hand around hers, never letting go.

"... You'll be okay, Hora... you'll get through this... I know you will... it'll be alright..."

Sting had jerked awake at the sound of Hora's coughing, just as Rogue had. And all through the brief bit of relief with seeing her actually sort of awake, and the ache that came with her being driven to tears and her mind clouding over- Sting had kept himself quiet, watching tensely as Rogue started to murmur those soft words to try and calm her down. He hardly dared move a muscle after coming to a stiff halt when he'd seen the tears falling from her eyes, and then he sank a little in his seat on the other side of the bed when Rogue started to say what he did... and he waited a few minutes to let the initial rush of her getting jerked into wakefulness dwindle, before the blonde slowly reached his hand forward across the bed and set it down lightly on Hora's lower left arm.

It was his own little show and attempt at grounding her, and trying to settle her too if his touch could manage such a thing, but it was small. He couldn't convince himself to do anymore than that, he didn't want to overload her, he didn't want to do anything that would overwhelm her further, and more so than that... well, he couldn't imagine his touch would be that comforting at all.

He swallowed hard at the thought, resigning himself to the small gesture and setting his head down on the bedtop and in his free arm. His blue eyes glittered in the dim as he watched Rogue, the Shadow Dragon Slayer sitting there and persistent in his soft words for one hour, then two- and twice more that, and maybe further. Eventually time started to melt into a blur, and with it ticking away any attempts on both Sting and Rogue's parts to stay altogether awake began to wane.

Rogue didn't move from sitting on the bed beside her, and his hands never moved either- but the gentle rubbing motion on her head slowed over time, and then eventually stilled altogether. And his constant (and perhaps repetitive) assurances and words of comfort got to the point of stilling too, allowing silence to fall over the room again. The quiet was broken only by the rapid feverish breaths from Hora, and the lower ones of everyone else scattered about and asleep- or near to it, in Rogue and Sting's cases- by the time the fourth hour rolled in. And by that time, Hora seemed to have mostly faded off and had stopped fidgeting so much, her mind finally tipping over the edge into some abyss that mimicked sleep for the most part- though really for Hora it felt like floating on the fringes of a never-ending doze. The doze itself wasn't all that pleasant, it was like being on a ship at sea, bobbing up and down with the waves without end, and on an utterly moonless night. She couldn't make anything out but darkness, not the roiling sea she was being buffeted by, and not the sky, nothing- it was just endless, constant motion... In fact it was almost nauseating at times, and her stomach flipped but there was nothing in it to expel, so it just knotted painfully over and over.

The more her stomach knotted the more the sick feeling hounding her got, and the worse the confusion and sense of drowning started to become. It progressed to the point where she forgot everything- the Eclipse Gate, the Other Rogue, the death, destruction, fighting- all of it. And not even that need and urgency to get out of the waves and stop herself from drowning was there anymore.

There was nothing left but pain and sick gripping tightly to her body, steadfast and with an iron hold... But this time it wasn't pulling her down, she was just in it, staying at the top and riding the waves as they came along- but not sinking.

... W... What...?

... I... I'm...

... F...loating...?

That didn't seem right, it couldn't be right... Right...? Wasn't she sinking before...?

... I... I don't remember...?

... I... I'm... Just... I'm so... Ti...red...

... I... I... I can't... St.. Stay awake...

She was drifting off again, and this time away from that bobbing ocean and toward somewhere different... But even as she felt herself getting lulled into that quiet abyss that made up the 'different' by the waves buffeting her body, there was still no downward motion to it.

No sinking, just something different. Quieter, calmer... And maybe even impossibly...?

Better

.:+:.

"Horatia! Hey!"

She turned about toward the voice calling behind her, seeing the bright and smiling figure of Sting running to catch up toward her on the top most rise of the hill she stood upon- Lector's smirking form beside the White Dragon Slayer as they continued forward. Behind Sting she caught sight of Rogue, smiling softly as he ran slower- but not enough to get left behind, Frosch beside him.

She smiled brightly, hands on her hips and hip cocked slightly as she waited for them to catch up- her teeth flashing in the warm sunlight overhead, her orange, red, pink and black hair shinning in the sunlight bathing over them- the small breeze dancing across her skin.

"Hey you four." She grinned as they caught up to her, her heart dancing slightly to see the excitement dazzling their eyes. "Come to join me on my mission?"

"You bet!" Sting smirked, fists clenching in excitement before him.

"I bet Sting-kun will do better than anyone else!" Lector smirked,

"Fro thinks so too!" Frosch lift a paw with an innocent smile,

"If you'd have us, that is." Rogue murmured, Hora chuckled.

"Of course, dumbass." She smirked, laughing a little at the stricken look she received from Rogue- noticing that Sting laughed along with her. She hooked an arm around Rogue's shoulders, pulling him to her and smiling all the way- pulling an arm around Sting's shoulders too, holding them both close, her smile never fading as Frosch and Lector looked on with smiles of their own.

Hora smiled at the two of them, her dark blue gaze sparkling in happiness and delight- the sort of which she hadn't had since before they joined SaberTooth alongside her. They made her happy, more than she could have ever hoped for- and it was her happiness with them beside her she cherished more than they could ever possibly know.

"What sort of mission would it be without my four favorite people?" She smiled, earning a bright beaming grin from Sting, and a softer, but none the less happy smile from Rogue.

...

She lightly tapped the card face, the words blinking away as the image appeared across it's surface, four faces she knew oh so well peering closely (maybe a bit too closely) up at her as they all crowded around it.

Her lips pulled at the edges, her heart fluttering.

"... It worked..." She breathed, her voice wispy in disbelief.

"Hora!" Sting and Lector snapped,

"Atia!" Frosch piped in,

"Hey! What's with the sudden letter?!" Sting questioned immediately,

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?!" Rogue asked, his voice feverish as he looked up from the screen, struggling for space as Sting pushed his face farther into view.

"Did something happen?!"

"It worked!" She exclaimed happily, too caught up in her own excitement to notice or even really register the questions they were asking in what seemed like an interrogation. Her hands shot up, holding the card between them as she beamed up at the screen, before she hugged it to her chest, grinning like an idiot maybe, but this- this was exciting for her.

She'd attempted an entirely new form of Magic and a new way of using her own, and got it on the first try!

She'd told Lucy before that she took pleasure in the small things- and this was one of those things.

Thank you Lucy, for showing me that Card! And thank you Cana for creating something so freaking cool!

She pulled the card back in front of her, still smiling in triumph and pleasure as she finally focused on them entirely, jabbing her thumb to her chest as she shot them a smirk through the screen.

"Am I good or what? I got these cards to work on the first try boys, you should be impressed!" She smirked still, chuckling. "I'd never even heard of Magic Items like this! Isn't it cool? They're like Communication Lacrima, only smaller and easier to carry around- it's a completely new kind of Magic for me, and an even newer type of Enchantment Picto Magic. And I did it on my first attempt- hehe, that is freakin' cool!" She smiled, her eyes glinting as she looked down at them and the utterly deadpan stares she was receiving. Her excitement and rambling slowed, she blinked a few times, her head tilting at them. "... What?"

"WE THOUGHT SOMETHING WAS WRONG, HORA!"

"..eh? Why?"

"You never send any letters while we're Training!" Rogue snapped,

"And Drille said it was important! And then disappeared right away!" Sting had pressed his face closer to the card, looking absolutely agitated and rather annoyed.

"We get an important letter out of nowhere, knowing you're out on some dangerous mission! What the hell were we supposed to think!?" They snapped in unison, Hora blinked once as she simply looked at them, they were all a little red in the face out of frustration- and it finally hit her how panicked they had looked when she answered the card. And despite herself, she smiled at them, a small, soft smile as she chuckled under her breath.

"Hehe... I'm sorry I freaked you out, but nothing's wrong." She replied softly, blue gaze glinting.

"I just wanted to see you guys, that's all, and I'll have a talk with Drille about defining 'important' between emergency and casual. I'm sorry you were worried for no reason."

...

... What...?

... Why is... All of this... Coming back now...?

... Playing... Over again...?

...

"Its was nice meeting you all, I had fun. I'd love to hang out again sometime too." She replied, honestly she would- being in Lamia... It hadn't been all that bad.

The sun had long set behind the roofs of the town as day drew to an end and night began to fall. Drille had returned a few hours ago with word that Sting and Rogue were on their way back, and should reach Margret town by nightfall. She'd been allowed the entire day with Lamia and it's members- and she had to admit it had been considerably enjoyable. She and Lyon, they were fast friends... The sort of fast friends she had become with Rogue, Sting, Lector and Frosch. You just sort of... Clicked.

Lyon took a step forward toward her, making Hora blink in slight confusion at his sudden movement. His dark eyes landed on her figure, a small, nearly unnoticeable smile pulling at his lips as he stepped up beside her.

"Allow me to escort you some of the way," he murmured, Hora blinked a few times, before smirking softly.

"If you wanted to walk with me that bad you could have just asked, Ice-boy." Hora chuckled softly, he sweatdropped, clearing his throat awkwardly and looking flustered at the teasing. Hora shook her head slightly and hooked her arm in his, a shiver running up her spine at how frosty he was to the touch, in contrast with her warm person.

"Come on."

...

Rufus and Orga moved up right off, Orga much faster than the blonde and Lector and Frosch quickly moved out of Hora's lap as he approached- and she smiled nervously at the large and incoming man.

Ah-

Orga picked her up off the ground and in his burly embrace with extreme ease, holding her tight and her feet not at all close to the ground. She smiled at it though, especially so when he hugged her, and then moved to holding her in one arm, his other raising as his hand found the top of her head, and then he promptly mussed her hair up- a lot. It was an affectionate gesture, and also a slightly exasperated one too, and he clicked his tongue at her as he did it.

"You are just getting into all the crazy stuff lately, huh?" He grumbled, "I'm surprised you're still keeping up- my head's spinning already at just what the King said, but your stuff is making it lot worse...!" He huffed, before letting out a small sigh and his rubbing her hair all the wrong directions ceased. "Well anyway, it's good to see you- even if you got banged up again. You sure you're all good?" He hummed and she smiled slightly, nodding.

"Yeah, I'm sure." She hummed, and he set her back down easily, his hands falling on his hips as Rufus stepped up beside him, smiling faintly as his hands found hers and held on.

"It is very good to see you back and safe, Horatia." The blonde hummed, squeezing her hands gently with his own and she smiled back.

"Thanks, it's good to be back."

...

"... to be honest... I didn't know you would be as worried as you are..." Hora mumbled,

"Of course I am!" Lucy snapped, catching Hora entirely off guard, and making her flinch backward at the sudden harshness in the blonde. "You're my friend! Of course I'm worried if you're feeling sick or getting hurt!"

"... friend...?" Hora breathed, the word appearing not on part of that damned voice, but in the blonde.

"Friends tell eachother when something's wrong, got it?!" Lucy hissed, looking agitated now. "Friend's keep an eye on eachother and always work to make sure the other is alright. Friends talk to eachother when something's bothering them, or isn't right, and friends always stick together- no matter what! And they don't keep secrets from eachother when those secrets can end up hurting you or someone else!" Lucy's brown gaze flashed, her expression pulling into something so steady and so serious. "Even if you're afraid of worrying someone else! Friends are supposed to worry about eachother, that keeps them alive! And if you let other people know how you're feeling that gives them a chance to help you! Friends are supposed to help eachother, no matter what, Hora!"

Hora blinked, her face falling slack in shock as she simply held that burning brown gaze from the blonde, how... well, passionate she was about what had become something of a lecture. Or even scolding, and it caught her completely off guard. Because in reality it came out of near nowhere.

What the...?

"Do you understand?" Lucy grumbled lowly, her eyes narrowed at Hora who let out a small, silent breath.

"She's right ya know."

Lucy and Hora both jumped, their heads snapping around toward the voice and eyes wide as they landed on the figure of Natsu, who had appeared beside them along with Cancer with absolutely no warning at all. Below them the North Wind Lieutenant was knocked out cold, Hora could see some from leaning over the edge of the balcony a little- but she'd been so focused on Lucy she'd missed Pinky and Cancer finishing it.

When the hell...?!

Natsu stood with his hands on his hips, his expression neutral as he glanced down toward Hora steadily. "Friends gotta stick together and trust eachother."

... they keep saying that word... like it's natural... like It should be... obvious...

"...heh...?" She huffed, words seemed apt to just fail.

He smirked slightly, "Ah, come on don't give me that face. We're all friends, yeah?" Her breathing caught in her throat this time around, her eyes gleaming as she saw Lucy smiled slightly her way.

... friends...

"... even if I'm Saber...?" Hora mumbled, it being the only response she managed. Honestly, hearing them say it so easily... they'd only known eachother a few days, and certainly not long enough... well...

"Of course!" Lucy said quickly,

"We got plenty of friends in other Guilds ya know, don't matter to us if your SaberTooth or not." Natsu smirked, "A Guild don't define what kind of person you are."

"That's right. We like you as a friend for who you are, not what Guild you're a part of." Lucy assured easily. They just kept smiling, so content and so serious about it all.

... Brother... I remember the last time... It felt like this...

... it... It happened just as quickly then as it did now... I knew how I felt... But that word never popped up so fast...

...

... Friends... huh...?

...

"Sorry to pull you away, but I'd figured you wouldn't mind-"

Hora broke off, her eyes widening as she flinched back a little- too late.

"Hora!"

They'd jumped at her all at once, beaming and worried at the same time- their bodies moving and arms thrown open as Hora felt her heart drop into the pits of her stomach.

Shit-

Lector and Frosch slammed into her, hugging close to her torso and tails wagging like crazy, burying their noses in her chest- she hissed, feeling them bump into her stomach rather hard and biting down on her tongue.

Rogue and Sting were no better, they threw themselves at her- their arms wrapping tightly around her shoulders and body, their momentum knocking the breath from her as she yelped a little- and they all fell back against the cobbled road with a painful thud in a mess of limbs and bodies. They bent over her, almost laying on top her and pressed close- their warmth against her, arms locked around her, faces pressed into either side of her neck, Hora's back pressed against the ground and only barely catching her head before she slammed it into the ground too.

She honestly couldn't tell where one person ended and one person began- they were twined together tightly and it really didn't feel like they were gonna let her go, maybe ever. They held tight to her as if she was going to slip away from them again, what personal space they usually adopted didn't matter for a damn thing- they were just happy to able to touch her, to hold her.

And all four of them, they were shaking- badly.

A shiver ran up her spine, a drop of something wet splashing against the inside of her neck and against her shoulder- followed quickly by another, and then more- she heard their breathing hitching and their bodies jumping as they cried.

"H.. Hora..."

"... Y... you're back..."

"..w..we... m-missed you... s-so much...!"

"... w-we've b-been... s...so... worried...!"

"...we... w-we thought... you'd..."

"... we thought... you weren't... c...coming... b-back... w-when..."

"... b...but you..."

"... y-you're... here... a-alive...!"

"... y... you came back..."

Hora's eyes fell closed, shutting tight as she bit back the sting of tears pricking at the edge of her own eyes.

They are sobbing, holding on to me so tightly... like they're afraid if they let go again, I'll be-

She hissed, her teeth gritting.

Her arms pulled up from being trapped underneath them, moving as she hooked them around all of them as well as she could manage- pulling them into her tightly as her shoulders hunched a little- her nose burying itself in Rogue's hair.

All that talk about being a better friend- and I still worried them this much..

She held them tighter, her hands clenching around their clothes.

"... I'm so sorry... I'm..."

She sucked in a shaky breath- Sting, Rogue, Lector and Frosch all felt her shudder underneath them. Hora's eyes shut harder, hissing as she felt the tears manage through, a single, thin trail falling down her cheeks and stinging slightly across the fresh scar over her nose. Her voice dropped away, shaking and hardly a whisper.

"... I'm so sorry..."

...

Do you feel that?

That warmth... Not fire, but warmth, slowly melting the numbness..?

That warmth... I always feel it when I'm with them...

... I'd almost forgotten what that feels like...

... Sting... Lector... Frosch... Rogue...

... You four gave me a reason to keep going, and you never knew it...

... Forgive me...

...

"Hora!"

She jumped, her attention on Lector snapping away from the shout of her voice- and she didn't notice how quickly Lector wriggled out of her hold either. Not before her feet were knocked out from under her and she got swallowed up in someone's else's grasp, both of them quickly falling backward and she couldn't stop herself.

They ended up on the ground, her back saved hitting the stone all the way because he was hugging her into him so closely, straddling her as he leaned over with her pinned to him and he buried his face into the crook of her shoulder. She blinked, stunned with the sudden embrace and how quickly it had come... But more so with how tight it was, while still being gentle, and how much he was shaking against her as he stayed right where he was, both of them locked together on the floor and not daring to move even an inch.

"... Y...you're back..." He hissed, his voice shaking just as much as he was, his arms around her tightening a little more, and her heart fluttered as his scent hit her nose, heavy and warm, and so achingly his.

"... Hora, I'm so happy to see you... I've b-been losing my mind... All day...!" He hissed, his voice breaking off in a stifled half-sob and so, so quiet... He was breathless, relieved, happy, scared- all at once, and it was nowhere near dead or cold... Not like the other one.

"... Y...you're back... You..."

He was crying, she could feel the way his breaths and body hitched with them, she could smell the salty tang of the tears and felt them against her shoulder. He was so happy, so much it was too much, his body and emotions a mess and now a hundred times more so at seeing her there so suddenly, the tension melting away and leaving him trembling like a leaf... And...

"... Please... Please don't scare me like this again... I can't take it... The thought of losing you, Hora..."

He broke off again, his voice strangled in a sob and she felt her heart break. Her breath got snatched away by it and she quickly returned the embrace, her fingers digging into his clothes and shaking herself.

This...

She grit her teeth against the way her eyes stung, her own tears threatening to come up and the well of hurt, relief, sadness, terror, happiness and everything else- all that she'd felt that day, and those before it... And especially that of which had shook her to the core when faced with the Future version of him, and how much it wasn't him at all.

She grabbed to the Shadow Dragon Slayer tightly, both of them locked now in eachothers arms and she didn't dare let go. She drank in his scent, reveled in the warmth of his body against hers and how gentle and comforting his arms around her were at that very moment.

... This... This is my Rogue...

Her fingers gripped harder into his shirt despite herself for the thought, and she held her breath against the way her heart hurt and warmed all at once.

... My Rogue... I don't what happened... To the other one... B... But...

"... Please don't ever change... Rogue..."

...

"That was a seriously huge Spell, and it worked pretty good, you actually managed to do some damage." Gray mumbled quietly, his eyes moving from Hora and toward where Callan was still batting at the smaller ice birds still left. "... But, you've got a thing with birds, huh...?" He added quietly, casting the panting Saber a sideways glance- but if Hora ever heard it, she didn't say anything to it... And honestly, he doubted she heard the comment at all, because she did look awful, and it was clear as day to all of them she wouldn't be able to do another Spell like that at all- which sucked, since it was the only thing that had made a dent so far. But they couldn't blame her for not being able to repeat it, she'd not really been at 100% even before all of this, and she was pretty much a newbie with her Ice Magic too.

Hell, to be entirely honest- what she'd been doing the whole time? Even already being injured, and drained, and not in the best of shape, or even really with any practice at all at being a Dragon Slayer?

"... Ya know, you're kinda kicking ass at the whole Ice Dragon Slayer thing, especially for being totally 'half-baked'." Gray murmured, shooting Hora a faint, and sort of weary smirk that she cracked an eye open for, her panting breaking off a second in surprise. He let out a breath, his eyes dropping closed and shaking his head a bit. "... Heh, you're kinda making the rest of us look bad, ya know...? You're just as worn out as we are, and even more so- but you're still firing off attacks like that... Totally kick ass." He mumbled, Juvia beside him nodding in agreement, while Hora blinked, her attention stuck on Gray and dark blue eyes gleaming.

...

Gray shifted slightly, about to step forward though he couldn't actually get himself to move with how much his mind was whirling just then. Hora moved though, but all she managed was a single shaky step his way, a shuddering breath of air escaping her as her expression twisted faintly, and the tears spilled all the faster, sparkling as they splashed at her feet and he froze, eyes wide.

He... He's not... C-covered in blood... the... The Mini-Dragons... I got them all...

... It... It didn't happen again... I... I managed to... To stop then from... F...from him...

"G...Gray..." Hora stammered, her voice so very low and wispy, swallowing hard as she managed another small, extremely uneven step, before having to halt a moment, lest she topple over. Her eyes never left him though, not even as the tears kept coming, and Gray didn't look away either. He couldn't, because he didn't understand how she- a near complete stranger, and someone who had been so jumpy around him- could look so... So completely terrified, relieved, and anguished all at once... And over... Him...? Was he reading that right? Was he the reason...?

But why would she-?

"...Gray... P... Please... Please don't die again..." Hora stammered breathlessly, her voice breaking on the words and he stiffened further, his stomach flipping and a shiver running up his spine. Hora sucked in another shuddering breath of air, dark blue eyes all glassy and swimming in hurt, pain, fear, and so much pleading- and her voice was so full of all of that as she went on. "... P.. Please... Please don't die again... N...not before I get the chance to-"

...

... S...shit... what happened after...?

... it... it's all so... fuzzy...

...

"... Please Hora... Hold on... You... You have to be okay...! Tch... Hora please...please... H... Hora..."

... I... Could barely... Hear them...?

"... Hora... Please... You have to... Stay with us... D-Don't die... P-please...!"

Those voices... Were...

"... S.. Stay with us H-Hora... Please..!"

... Sting and... Rogue... R... Right...?

...

"Tch... I'm sorry... But... Stay alive okay...? I told him you could make it through this... I know you can... so just keep trying... Okay...?"

... That's... I think that one... Was Natsu...

...

"... Hora... Please... you need to get better, okay...? I know... I know you're exhausted... but... please... you have to keep fighting it... you have to come back, Hora... you promised... I... I know you meant it.. i... I understand why you...y...you pushed yourself so far... I... I get it... I'm not mad, Hora... I know why you kept trying... please... keep fighting now too, okay...?"

... Wait... I heard this... Earlier right...?

B...but earlier... It was... So far off... And disjointed...

"... I know it's... R... Really hard now, t-to keep... Fighting it, after everything... But... Please... I need you to come back, Hora... I... I can't handle losing you... I can't..."

... Rogue... He was crying... A..and...

... He was crying still... I... I woke up didn't I...?

... I can't... Remember it... Clearly... But...

This... This is clearer this time...s... sort of...

... He... He said something... Didn't he...? Something I didn't... Catch...

"... P-please Hora... I can't take it i-if you... You d-die... P... Please... C-come back... W...wake up... Please... Y... You have to be okay... I c-can't lose you, Hora... I... I'm s-so sorry... I... I just can't... N-not if you're gone... Please... I... I can't do it if you... I... I-"

It broke off again, the recant of all those memories laying now, and all those snippets of things she had heard only barely at the time and remained now only as echoes of the words- all of it fell abruptly silent... And she got pulled again out of the ocean, but this time- she got pulled up.

.:+:.

... H...huh...? W... What the...?

Hora swallowed hard, the world trickling back in slowly- quiet, and dim... And this time, when the waking world managed its way back to her?

... I... I don't... Feel so... Awful anymore...?

And... I... I can think again...

It all came flooding back, almost all at once- just like whatever string of memory and recollection from before had. Months worth of things going from bad, to crazy, to impossibly insane- North Wind and Neveleous, the progression of the GMG, a confession of being trapped by Jiemma, and then all those she cared for either hurt, captured, threatened... killed...

She grimaced, pressing her eyelids shut tightly before even daring to open them up again, trying to quell the sting of tears that wanted to come to the surface at the thought of it.

She remembered everything, and most of it in awful, vivid detail. Especially the worst parts.

All the turmoil and struggle, the blood and carnage wrought onto herself, the Future Lucy, her Guild, friends, the Dragons laying waste to the city, all their fights against the beasts, and her Brother at the end... but it was at that end where everything became much less vivid, and then altogether too hazy and fractured to really recall much of anything. It was just voices, disjointed and faraway, with lots of gaps in them where words would have been, but she couldn't really call them up to the surface... Which was less than comforting, because with all that chaos coming back to the forefront of her mind, and riding in on the back of the vague memory of feeling so utterly overwhelmed before when she woke up with Rogue- all that those memories elicited in that moment was the need to figure out what the hell happened.

She didn't know how long she'd been out, or how long her bobbing in that ocean of awful sensations and memory lasted- and she didn't even really know when things had shifted from being awful, to simply remembering. She didn't have any sense of change or anything else, not until just in that moment where everything came back all at once and she actually had the faculties to handle and make sense of most of it.

She didn't feel as awful as she had when that had all gone on, but she still felt gross. Her whole body ached and felt like a million pounds, with sharper bursts of pain making their way intermittently through her very core from her lungs, and her sides too- but her chest was the worst of the lot. It stung to breathe at all, and hurt like hell to breathe too deeply-and when she did there was a faint, almost imperceptible sensation of bone grinding from time to time that made pain like fire rush through her... and she felt hot still too, and sweaty, and a bit nauseous and feverish all the same- but it wasn't as heavy nor as debilitating on her mind as it had been before.

Hora blinked her eyes slowly, biting back at another stab of pain running through her core and looking up to find a roof overhead, pale and streaked across by little snippets of grey light doing it's utmost to break passed the curtains covering some large windows on her left. The little light that managed through was harsh on her eyes, and made it difficult to really make out any of the rest of what was around- a room clearly, and a big one at that, with furniture and such littered about where she lay... but a lot of it refused to sharpen out of murky shadows, and she had to stop trying and focus on something closer if she was gonna have any luck of determining what it was.

But no sooner did her eyes flit away from the window at the edge of her vision and back toward herself, did she hone in on who was directly beside her- and the feeling of a hand holding to hers, and another on her right arm came into much sharper focus than anything.

Hora blinked slowly, her eyes falling back to her left and seeing a head a pale-blonde hair, Sting leaned over and resting in his arms crossed on the bedtop, his back rising and falling slowly as he slept... and one hand extended far enough to reach her, and was resting lightly atop her lower arm. She swallowed slightly before looking away to determine who it was that had their hand held around her right one- finding Rogue sitting on the bed beside her, one knee propped up and his elbow resting on it, and his chin in his hand. Like Sting his eyes were closed, and he seemed to be asleep... and hell, he looked terrible.

There were heavy dark circles under his eyes, his black hair was disheveled, sticking up everywhere and to his face in a complete mess. He was also covered in bandages and such, but they'd been applied haphazardly and bits of blood had seeped through a few, with awful dark bruising painting his skin in way too many places to count. And she could feel him trembling slightly, the tremors running through the bed and in her hand he had grabbed hold of- which was warm, and much warmer against her own than was really comfortable. He must not have been willing to let go for hours at least...... shit.

Hora's hand in his reflexively tightened without her meaning for it too, and he jumped right off- jerked almost from whatever doze he had been in and blinking rapidly as he tried to orient himself and focus. His red eyes darted quickly to find hers, glassy and so filled with exhaustion and ache it made her stomach twist painfully- which did nothing to help with how knotted and sore it already was.

"... Hora..." The Shadow Dragon Slayer mumbled softly, hesitating for a moment as if he wasn't quite sure if he was seeing her actually awake, or if it was just some sort of dream. She'd been so out of it for so long now, her mind clouded in a haze of fever and whatever else, with sleep eluding her for longer still. It had taken more hours than he could count before she'd seemed to drift off into something like sleep, and then longer still after that for the fidgeting and rapid breaths to mellow out too... He must have dozed off somewhere in there, though he tried not to- and just now his mind had a hard time processing anything. He couldn't quite tell if she was actually awake, if he was dreaming it, or if it was reality- was she awake awake? Or was this like it had been before, where she'd only managed to come to the fringes of consciousness and was swimming in a fever-driven delirium still?

Her eyes were clearer than they had been before, less glazed and brighter- like she was actually a lot more focused this time. And when their eyes matched he saw the concern make its way over her expression immediately, but there was no confusion there, or clear struggle to keep her eyes open at all- not like before.

Rogue swallowed slightly, adjusting slowly as he let his knee back down, his free hand hovering a bit as he blinked, still trying to fight off the terrible heavy haze lingering over his head and making his thoughts impossible to pull together... But she...?

She looks like she... S-She's actually awake... And lucid...?

He sucked in a little breath of air for the thought, the sort of dazed look on his face getting replaced quickly with shock and disbelief. Hora's attention darted from his face to his hand, her eyes flashing when she saw it trembling quite badly and she looked toward him not a second later.

"...A... are you okay...?" Hora asked quickly, her voice rough and grating- so much so she ended up coughing, which earned another round of sharp stab-like pains running through her chest. Rogue stiffened at it, quick to scoot himself a little closer and steady her as she cringed, folding in on herself ever so slightly and right hand moving up to hold her chest gingerly. She sputtered a few times as the coughing began to cease, her breaths coming quick and shallow as she willed her muscles to relax and stop putting pressure on what felt to be a number of fractured ribs and shredded lung tissue.

Rogue's hands found her shoulders, frowning as he let his palms run gently in circles over her form, stonily quiet while doing it for as long as it took for her to settle again. When she managed to catch a bigger breath that didn't hurt too much, and her rigid body under his hold unwound- he seemed to let out a shaky sigh, red eyes gleaming and shaking his head once. "... Please don't try to talk too much, Hora." The Shadow Dragon Slayer told her lowly.

Hora groaned a bit under her breath, hearing the words fine enough but not really happy with them. Not talking wasn't really something she wanted to do just then, but hell if her throat and lungs would let her.

T...tch... Damn it...

Rogue swallowed hard when he saw her expression twist again, both in discomfort and even little hints of agitation, his red eyes glinting as he shook his head a few more times, and just faintly.

"... I'm sorry, but you can't push yourself Hora, not right now." Rogue mumbled softly, "You're still in bad shape... you've been in bad shape a long while, Hora... I didn't... I..." The Shadow Dragon Slayer told her, his voice dropping slightly and almost gaining a hoarse tenor before it dropped away altogether, and Hora stiffened at it. Her eyes glimmered as she blinked them open and he seemed to swallow hard, his hands trembling terribly against her shoulders and then worse as he pulled them back slowly, and let go.

"... I am s... so relieved you're awake... Hora..." Rogue breathed, his voice shaking almost as bad as his hands were and he seemed to swallow hard again, bunching his hands into fists to try and still their trembling- though it did little. "... please... stay still okay...? I know you're probably confused... I know you don't know what happened but... please just rest some more for now...?" He murmured, pleading almost and Hora blinked slowly, her eyes narrowing in confusion and question both, while her stomach knotted so tightly she felt she wanted to retch.

Shit... He looks... terrified...

...w...what did I do...?

Something about her face must have given away the sudden surge of guilt that had her core wrenching so suddenly, because Rogue seemed to grimace, those exhausted red eyes of his gleaming as he shook his head quickly.

"... i-it's alright Hora, please... everything is fine..." He rushed to assure her, his voice a little hoarse still though he tried his best. "... just... please don't worry... just rest, okay...?" He murmured quietly, swallowing again as he seemed to fidget a little, his eyes flicking away for a moment and looking a little unsure now, as well as a touch panicked by the unease that had appeared in her so quickly. "... everything's alright, just... relax, okay...? I know you feel awful... I'm sorry..." He mumbled quickly and Hora swallowed hard, holding her breath for a moment to try and settle the ache in her lungs enough to allow her something.

"R... Rogue..." She started again, and with much better luck this time, but only just. Her voice was rough as hell and just saying the name was like daggers through her chest, and she had to cut off before she could say anything else, or risk coughing again. Rogue stiffened against the sound of her voice, shaking his head again as his eyes darted quickly back her way, frowning and instantly all the more nervous and uneasy.

"... Hush, Hora...!" He quieted her quickly, and a tad too curtly for her liking, not that he seemed to notice. His hands shook, hovering slightly in front of him like he intended to reach out, but he couldn't bring himself to do it, or didn't know if he should. He hesitated half a second further, grimacing a bit more to himself and looking a little more fidgety, before one hand came down gingerly on her hand and he gave it a small, somewhat reassuring squeeze. "... Please, just give it a rest, alright...?" He murmured lowly and Hora swallowed, hesitant for half a second- but shit.

He looked so freaked out

She nodded once, and just barely, and he seemed to wilt a little in relief, tiredness, or something else like those. Rogue let out a shaky sigh for it, his shoulders sinking slightly as he nodded once in reply, his hand on hers lingering a moment longer before he shifted. He offered up a small, utterly exhausted smile that only lasted half a second, and it wasn't much of a smile either- he couldn't manage a full one, but he tried, and his hand patted the back of hers lightly, and just twice.

"... Thank you..." He mumbled, his voice just above a whisper while his posture seemed to deflate a smidge more. He forced another breath that was just as shaky as the one before it, and Hora bit the inside of her cheek, her eyes only halfway open for the heaviness of her eyelids, but her attention not wavering from him beside her even for a moment.

He did look terrible. She felt sick for it, her stomach knotting a million times more for every second she saw the exhaustion, fear, and everything else swimming in those dull, tired eyes of his.

How bad had this gotten...? How bad had she gotten, to make him look like that...? To have him fidgeting, and nervous, pleading with her almost... And like he didn't know what to do anymore...?

... Shit...

She wanted to ask, she needed to- to know what happened, what had gone on, how the Eclipse Gate ended, the Dragons, the rest of the Guild, everyone... Gray.

She needed to know, but... He was almost begging when he asked her to stop talking, and just rest.

She didn't want to stay quiet, she didn't want to keep from knowing, she didn't want to listen to him or pay any mind to the pain and struggle in her own body that made saying words near impossible. She didn't want to leave it be... But she didn't want to make him any more scared than he already was either. She'd clearly already scared him enough.

... Damn it... I'm so sorry...

Hora grit her teeth for the thought, a heavy, biting prick of pain racing through her center and amping up all the rest of the awful she already felt. She held her breath for a few seconds against it, earning a burning sensation in her lungs that was all too familiar a sensation, before slowly letting that breath back out, and carefully so. She shut her eyes while doing it, a small hiss working its way into the bit of air she tried hard to keep as level as possible, and Rogue watched her do it, his lips pulling into a thin line when he saw the pain and ache there- where it had been nonstop.

He swallowed against it, his eyes moving from her again and to the side as they had before- the door, actually, and he chewed the inside of his cheeks.

Rogue forced another breath that was no steadier than any of those before it, his hand pulling back from atop Hora's as he shifted in his seat, and more toward the edge of the bed. The simple action of him moving earned Hora's eyes opening again, and he shook his head faintly for her to stay still, or not worry, or... Something.

"... I'm gonna go get Porlyusica." Rogue explained softly, his eyes meeting Hora's only briefly from the side as he settled his feet on the floor, though he didn't push himself up right off. "... She'll want to know your fever's broken..." The Shadow Dragon Slayer mumbled, his eyes moving away from Hora again. He stood up slowly, almost sluggishly so, his hands lingering on the edge of the bed for extra support and leverage to push himself onto his feet- and it seemed an absolutely monumental feat just doing that.

Hora swallowed slightly, dark blue eyes gleaming in the dim as she watched him. The shakiness in Rogue's hands was immediately echoed in every other part of him the moment he began to get up, and grew all the worse once he finally straightened all the way. He grimaced, blinking a few times and in slow succession, shaking his head slightly as if to clear it of a daze- but even shaking his head seemed to just daze him further, and one of his hands reached back for the bed to try and right himself. He didn't lean back though, he forced himself to stay as straight as he could and he took a step to the side so he could turn all the way from the bed and toward the door, shooting Hora a glance that was not at all level, nor steady.

Hora stiffened, her pulse picking up quickly and concern flooding through her in no time at all as she watched Rogue's already pale face go about ten shades whiter, and the trembling in his figure hit a peak.

The next bit that Rogue mumbled was so low she barely heard it. His voice dropped ten decibels, and even more than that- and all not three seconds after standing all the way.

"... I... I'll be... Right... ba...ck..."

Rogue's voice died out with a shaky breath that broke the last word right in half, all the color gone from his face now and Hora hissed, her heart skipping a beat, panic and shock hitting her like a train. She shifted without even thinking about it, pulling her arm out from under Sting's hand and the blood roaring in her ears along with her suddenly pounding heartbeat.

S-shit...!

Rogue's eyes fluttered, his entire frame tilting dangerously as his vision clouded in black on the edges and crawled inward in rapid time. He had no mind nor thought to what it was, or what it was leading to, he didn't even really register saying the last bit, or the fact his legs were shaking so badly they couldn't hold him- he didn't realize he was tilting, even when the last bits of the room in front of him around the black had gained a rapid and perilous angle. There was some sickening sensation of all the weight in his body and the effort of forcing himself up suddenly vanishing, but that was so fleeting he really didn't feel it at all, and he certainly didn't feel anything afterward. Not when the black swallowed him whole, and not when it sent him falling at breakneck speed into some chasm of utter nothing.

Rogue swayed once, tilted badly, and then his knees gave out on him- Hora rushing to push herself up and reach out to grab hold of his arm out of sheer instinct and fear all rolled into one.

"R-Rogue...!"

Her voice was much louder than she anticipated, and much more than her lungs and throat could safely handle. Her voice broke painfully the instant she said anything, but the sound of it in the hush of the room did not compare to the strangled and sharp yelp of pain that rose up in her throat next... Nor the heavy thump of Rogue's body as he hit the floor.

Hora's left hand found his wrist only just before he was too far out of reach, but the weight of him was way too much for her to keep hold of, and trying just jerked her rather roughly forward and toward the edge of the bed before she lost her grip entirely. But the action of his weight wrenching her so violently had some awful, blinding, white-hot pain igniting across her whole left side in an instant, and the yelp that escaped her was immediate and absolutely agonizing. The pain of it was derailing to an extreme. It snatched her breath away, her lungs seizing and her mind getting crushed under the intensity of it- any thought of Rogue, or the way her lungs begged for air, or anything else was swallowed whole by that searing white-hot rushing through her.

A strangled gasp of air pushed it's way up her throat, her lungs aching all the more for it and adding to the agony. She curled in on herself, muscles locking on battered and cracked bones building up the pain even further, and all she could do was lay there, paralyzed by it and totally unable to function, let alone think. Her mind was run off any sensible track and now hurtling away toward somewhere else, everything now suddenly nonsensical. She lost track of where she was, she lost track of Rogue, and her vision and mostly all sound around her became clouded and hazy and so, so muddled.

Everything blurred together, some heavy sound, the harshness of her own breathing, the pounding of her heart in her ears... and some other things too, low and fractured- but voices she was fairly sure. And one of them was suddenly rather close, but she couldn't make out what it said at all.

I... I don't... w..wait there's...?

Her head whirled, her vision dotted by black and darkening quickly while the pain continued to stay heavy and hound her senses relentlessly... but under the nonsensical voices blurring overhead and belonging to people she couldn't see, or make out- she felt something sticky and warm trickling down her figure, and she smelled the metallic tang of blood too... my blood.

... w...what...? Why...?

"... it...! Ho...ra...!"

Something came down on her cheek and her arm, light, fleeting brushes against her skin and a shadow looming over her... but even the touches felt so far away, like they were ghostlike, and apt to just go straight through her.

... I... I don't... I... can't... who is... that...?

Everything whirled again, the phantom-sensations of hands and far-off voices wrenched away without warning, and she felt herself pulled down, fast.

S... Shit... I'm... falling again...

"... Ho...ra...!"

.:+:.

She was drifting again, and in that same bobbing ocean from before. The waves lapped at her in constant rhythm, slow, but not altogether gentle. Just sort of... consistent.

Unending, unyielding, in constant motion.

She remained there at the top buffeted by those waves in that endless ocean, completely at their mercy, pushed and pulled everywhere and anywhere the water wanted her to go. And even though the waves themselves weren't quite soft or gentle, they weren't painful or buffeting either- so she had no reason to try and fight against their direction, not just then.

... Well, she had no reason to try and resist it until her mind pulled together enough that she actually remembered the brief, and entirely unpleasant stint of waking up earlier. You know, the one that had ended in Rogue collapsing out of nowhere, and whatever awful pain had hit her on trying (failing) to catch him?

S-SHIT...!

.:+:.

She jumped a little, the ocean gone in an instant and the buffeting of the waves gone just as fast- dropping her back into reality and this time she felt a bit better, but it really didn't make much a dent around the panic.

Above her was the same dim roof, attached to the same room she hadn't been able to make anything out of beforehand, and the same bed too- but there was no Rogue sitting on the bedside, nor Rogue to her right when she turned her head quickly to look. She immediately went to look over the edge of the bed for the floor, pushing herself up to roll over that way in slightly frantic motion. But before she could even get a few inches off the bed someone's hands came down on her shoulders and pinned her rather firmly.

"D-Don't...!"

Hora stiffened, her attention snapping around for the frantic order and voice, and her heart skipping a beat in both surprise and unease for being pinned without warning. She might have instinctively tried to throw whoever it was off, if not for the panic and agitation both laced into their voice. But more than anything though, she actually froze- because that single order of 'don't' was rather sharp, and curt... And it was Sting's voice.

She glanced left, dark blue eyes glittering in the dim and her teeth gritting despite herself while her stomach churned all anew for the order- and one that was a tad agitated, and even heated almost. She swallowed hard as her attention found Sting above her, frowning and with his hands still holding rather firmly to her shoulders and keeping her from moving too much. He seemed to force a tiny breath when their eyes matched, his hold on her slackening just a tad, but only just, and he shook his head at her stiffly.

"Don't move Hora." Sting murmured firmly, and she flinched a little at the flinty-ness of it. He paused at that, the frown on his face lessening for half a second as he seemed to swallow hard and he almost looked guilty- but it was gone so fast Hora never really noticed it. But it was there, and instantly he did his best to just... Just stop.

Stop being whatever amount or harsh, or too angry looking, or anything else that had her flinch. Something he didn't want to do, or intend to make her do, but he had and he hated it. He'd heard and felt her jump suddenly after so long of stillness, and he just reacted- much like he had after hearing all she had said, about the Possession Link, her family, and everything else.

He reacted without thinking and it... It hurt her, more than he ever intended or wanted to, and he felt his heart twist painfully at how quick she was so stiffen and flinch away from him.

Sting grit his teeth, quickly trying to get rid of whatever bits of his expression had earned that- but even trying he couldn't get rid of the unease, or the frown. Just like he couldn't quite get rid of the almost agitated look, though it faded a smidge. He tried so hard to quit it, to unwind, to stop being so... So awful.

He tried. He really tried, but he couldn't get his muscles to unwind or his heart to stop pounding. And it was harder still when that realization of it all hit him- that he had been a bit too loud, a bit to quick to snap at her, and a bit too harsh... Harsh again, damn it.

He never meant to, he just- shit.

The pressure of his hands on her shoulders let up a little more, and the frown on his face softened further too, Hora watching him stiffly and not at all sure why his face seemed to twist and pull in a dozen different ways, and all in rapid time. She just lay there, completely still while Sting seemed to growl under his breath and his eyes dropped away from hers uneasily, and she heard him swallow hard.

"... Shit... I... Please just stay still, okay...?" He mumbled lowly, tensely still. Hora blinked once, utterly quiet.

Sting hesitated half a second, maybe seeing if she was gonna reply, before he forced himself a sigh, adjusting slightly where he was settled on his knees atop the very large bed and just beside her. He didn't move much other than to lower himself down into sitting on his heels, and his hands fell on top of his thighs, rigid, and his fingers digging tightly into his pants. His eyes didn't move up to meet hers again, instead they settled in his lap and his shoulders hunched, his lips pulling into a tight line. Hora swallowed hard for it, her eyes flashing and her stomach curling sickeningly.

S... Shit... He still... Won't look at me...?

"... Please don't move... You... You ripped open some of your wounds again earlier, Hora... Trying to grab Rogue... Wendy and Sherria did their best to close them again, but... You can't afford to lose anymore blood, Hora... You've... Lost so much... E-even with transfusions... You... You just can't lose anymore, okay...? So please just stay still." Sting mumbled slowly and at length, his eyes stuck still to his lap as he said it, and his voice so, so low. Hora blinked slowly at the words, swallowing again at the information, her eyes falling from his face and those eyes that wouldn't meet hers.

She took in a breath, her attention moving from Sting and in toward herself for a moment. She didn't feel much in the way of intense pain at that moment, and none like before... Which apparently had been from ripping things open. But that was gone now for the most part, aside from little bursts and prickles of pain running across her left side if she took in too big a breath- but her lungs hurt still, so she didn't do it much.

Most of what she felt like now was just a general, heavy throbbing throughout her entire figure born from damage littered over every inch of her. From Callan's claws, the Mini-Dragons, the Other Rogue, Over-Drive, you name it. She'd lost a lot of blood even before everything with the Dragons... And afterwards?

Hora swallowed, her eyes flashing as she lift her right hand slowly, and settled it on her chest rather gingerly. Her ribs ached for the little touch, her hand and arm too from the cuts littered over her flesh- but in particular a rather unpleasant ache of pain washed through her left side, and when held her breath against it. She could see bandages around her arm, hand, and chest- she could feel them too, wound about her person in way too many places to count, and she wilted a bit.

... Callan really did a number on me... But Over-Drive probably made it a million times worse... That last Spell too... I... I broke Lixue... I broke... Us...

So... I guess... It makes sense I lost a lot of blood... And more, if I did rip open some earlier when- Wait.

B-but what happened to Rogue-?

"... Rogue's fine... He just... He passed out." Sting murmured, almost as if he could read her mind, or seemed to have sensed the way her heart picked up when Rogue and trying to 'catch him' came up. Hora faltered a bit in the small surge of panic and question at that, her eyes widening for the reply and utterly rigid now. Sting frowned a bit more, his shoulders hunching a tad as his eyes dropped closed- while his head tilted slightly to his right, and back a bit. Hora's eyes moved quickly in the direction his head had tilted, her heart skipping a beat and eyes widening in surprise and concern when she found Rogue across the room aways.

The Shadow Dragon Slayer was laid out on a couch against the far wall, a blanket draped over his form, eyes shut, and very pale. She could see his chest rising and falling in slightly rushed tenor, Frosch's head bobbing up and down from the movement as the Exceed hugged to Rogue even while being asleep. Lector and Yukino were over that way too, the Celestial Mage curled up asleep in a chair beside the couch Rogue was on, and Lector similarly asleep in her arms.

A small survey of the rest of the room had Rufus and Orga there too, sitting at a table together and both asleep. Not a one of them moved, or even stirred in the faintest with Hora jolting awake or Sting's quick orders for her to stop- and Hora wasn't surprised. Even from the distance she was at, the slight haze over vision still, she could see how exhausted and worn they all were, and Rogue looked even more awful than he had when she'd woken before.

"... He's still out of it, and he probably will be for awhile... He pushed it too hard... He just... He hasn't eaten anything in days, or really slept..." Sting mumbled, Hora's stomach churning for the words and earning her eyes moving back toward Sting slowly. Sting shook his head a bit, his lips pulling into an even thinner line and his shoulders tensed too, his voice dropping suddenly lower. Hora stiffened, her eyes flashing in the dim and her stomach flipping on it's head when she saw his fingernails dig all the more harshly into his legs, and she realized that he-

"... Nobody has... We've all been too... S...shit Hora... You've been in such bad shape... For five days." He hissed lowly, his fingers digging so hard into his knees now he must have been hurting himself- but he just kept going, his voice growing even lower. "For five days we've just been... Trying to keep you alive damn it... Y... You... Hora you promised you'd be careful... But you still... You... You got so bad... B-between your wounds, a-all the Magic you used... A-and Over-Drive... Shit..." Sting kept on, his voice dropping even lower than it already had and he seemed to hunch in on himself a little too. His fingers digging into his knees was so harsh now it earned his knuckles turning white.

"... Y... You said you'd be careful... T...that you'd come back... B...but... Hora... Y... You died, a-and we... D...damn it..." Sting hissed, his voice breaking painfully on the weighty word; 'died'

"... Y... You stopped breathing... Y-Your heart stopped... We... We tried so hard to bring you back a-and it didn't... W-we lost you and we d-didn't know i-if... we thought y-you... s...shit...!" He kept on, his voice growing all the more uneven. "... H...Hora... it's j-just been one thing... a-after another... o-over and over... y-you just keep getting hurt, over and over... getting into things, f-fighting even though you... you were already in bad shape... p-pushing it so hard u-until you... you... fuck... y-you've been barely hanging on by a thread... t-this whole time... a...and you still just... kept going... all the way until... i...it killed you...!" He snapped hoarsely, his voice breaking painfully as he shook his head a bit hotly, the blonde folded in on himself a little more and his entire body trembling terribly.

Hora swallowed hard, her eyes locked to his hands and the harshness of his grip, the shaking in his body and voice, and the way his shoulders hunched- the near hissing of the words, and the barely contained hurt and ache swimming in his voice... Because... because she pushed things to the point... her heart stopped... s..shit... he's-

"...t...tch... y... you... you pushed everything...s..so far...e..even though you were... you... you kept going... kept fighting... trying so hard to... to... even when... tch, damn it..." He hissed next, his voice barely above a whisper now and Hora stiffened again when he cut off, and this time there was anger and agitation in his voice- hearing that felt like getting a sword run through her chest.

-he's still... he's angry... at me... f-for all of it...

Her chest tightened so badly at that she almost ended up in a coughing fit right then and there. But she kept it at bay, swallowing hard and her hand on her chest curling tightly around the sheets covering her. She shut her eyes too, her teeth gritting against the awful fire in her lungs now as she held her breath, and the way her entire core wrenched for the realization of that.

He's still mad at me... more mad now, after all of it- shit, shit... shit...

She sucked in a sharp, terribly uneven breath of air that just made the burning in her chest all the worse. She shut her eyes tighter for it, the sting of tears welling up even with her eyelids closed. She held tighter to the sheet, the deep cuts still littered across her palm stinging a little more than the threat of tears... but only just.

... I... I really fucked up...t..tch...

"... I... I'm so s...sorry..." Hora barely managed to hiss, her voice scarcely audible and so ragged she could only just get the three words out before she ended up sputtering. And she only just managed to keep herself from coughing at all.

Sting went utterly rigid for the apology though, his muscles locking and the shaking his body had adopted put on a sudden hold. His heart skipped a beat and dropped into the earth all in the same instant, and he couldn't breathe either- because she...?

He grit his teeth hard, the shaking in his limbs returning shortly after, and with a bit more fervor now. Sting bent over a bit more, his head bowing deeply and face hidden from all view.

"... Hora you... why are you sorry...?" Sting hissed lowly, and Hora stiffened at the question, her eyes snapping open and over toward him, blinking. Sting shook his head stiffly, bending over a bit more so his forehead almost brushed his hands on his knees, and she saw him shudder as he sucked in a quick, absolutely aching breath of air that almost choked him.

"..s..shit... you shouldn't be sorry... n-not when... I... I... I was... I was so awful to you... H-Hora..." He stammered breathlessly. Hora froze, her eyes flashing and stunned,

W..what...?

"...D-damn it... I... I was s-such an ass to you... a-after what happened with Jiemma.. a..and the Possession Link... y... you almost died f-from what he did, you were hurt, r-really bad a-and I just... I was such a bastard to you... I was... I shouldn't have b-been so terrible to you... I... I shouldn't have yelled, o-or said what I did... I... I shouldn't have acted like such... a..an asshole... n-not when you... you were hurt... hurting... a-and after telling us about... y-you're family... n...none of it..." Sting whispered, his voice choking off several times a word now and so very, very low. "... tch... damn it I... I shouldn't have... n...not to you... n-not after everything... I... I hate myself for... for treating you like that... I was so horrible t-to you... y-yelling and... and being so harsh... a..and not... not talking to you... e..even when you showed up at the Square...a...and you were hurt again... I... I should have... I should have s-said something... a-apologized... o-or even just... just..."

Sting's voice cracked painfully and Hora stared, her eyes widening and her heart stalling for a second when she saw something small, wet, and glittering fall into his lap- and quickly followed by several more.

"... I... I n-never meant to... I... I shouldn't have... s..shit Hora...t...this whole time... I... y... you died, a-and I thought... y... you wouldn't come back... you w-would have been gone forever... a-and the last thing I ever did... w...was be so... awful to you..." He hissed, bending further in on himself as the specks of moisture kept coming, faster and with more fervor- and his voice kept getting shakier with it.

"... i... if you died... a...after I... was such... such a... a monster t-to you... H..Hora... I... I could never forgive myself... I... I still don't think... I can forgive myself... e-even if you... d...don't... d...damn it... I... I am so s-sorry..." Sting choked out, his voice breaking again and he sucked in another gulp of air just as shaky and hushed as the last one. "... I... I was never mad at you, H-Hora... n...not really, I j-just... A-after finding out about the P-Possession Link, a-and what it was... w...what Jiemma did to you... because I had... because I had gone after him... s..shit... he... he tried to k-kill you... he almost k-killed you... because of... because of me..."

He broke off again, his voice shattering and he didn't even dare breathe for a heartbeat or two. He just hunched further, completely folded over now and his hands on his knees moving, his arms snaking around himself and holding tightly, the tears streaming from his eyes dribbling in constant rhythm atop his lap.

".. I... I'm s-so sorry Hora... I... I'm sorry... I can't... I never... I never wanted to hurt you... I didn't mean t-to... b..but I... I almost got you killed... I... I didn't know w-what... T...to do... I... I could have... G-gotten you killed... I... I was so... so horrible t-to you... I hurt you... a-and I... I w-wanted to... to stop... I w-wanted to... after... y... you got hurt again... t...trying to... g-get Yukino back... a-and you... you asked Erza to... to save L-Lector... b...but... I c...couldn't... I... I couldn't... n-not after what I did... I... I don't... shit... I.. I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." He sobbed, "... I'm s-so sorry... I... I didn't mean to hurt you... I never w-wanted to... b...but... Hora... I... didn't... sh..it... I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm...s...sorry..."

Sting's voice faded to nothing but breathy whispers hitching with the sobs racking his whole body, a dozen and more frantic I'm sorry's stammered out- and each one more painful, guilt-ridden, and agonized than the last. He could barely breathe, but he kept mumbling the apologies over and over, and he could have done it for ten years, but it would still never be enough to make up for all of what he'd done to her.

Not after being so harsh, and snapping at her as he had right after what had happened with Jiemma. Not when he'd yelled at her and been so angry, even when she stood there, pale as hell, covered in blood, and had been being ripped to shreds minutes before because he'd attacked Jiemma blindly. Not after he'd refused to look at her, and let her run off to get hurt worse than she already had because of his own inability to face the fact that it was his fault she'd almost gotten killed. Not after he'd kept himself silent, and from apologizing even after she'd come back from the Palace in worse shape. Not after he stayed quiet even when he learned about her asking Erza to save Lector, and all manner of other things she'd done for him, for everyone else- even if that meant putting herself last.

He should never have done any of that, he should never have acted- reacted- that way. He should never have been so curt with her, or let her go off- he should have tried to stop her, keep an eye on her, showed some amount of care or concern for her and her safety. He should have done something, said something- maybe if he had... Maybe he could have prevented some of this, and some of what lead to her getting so bad she... she died.

He should never have done what he did, because it hurt her. A friend wouldn't have treated her like that, or have hurt her the way he had, and he could never take it back. He could apologize a million times and more, and it would never be enough. Not even days of sitting there, terrified of losing her and living with the reality that he might have hurt her even more badly with what he did than Jiemma ever had- that guilt and self-loathing could not make up for a damn thing. He could hate himself, and he did hate himself, but that didn't make up for a damn thing.

Not after he'd been nothing less than cold and cruel to her. Not after he'd been so terrible to her, done so much harm to her, with his scathing words, his rigidity, his inability to say anything, him not trying to stop her or do anything.

Not after he'd been nothing less than an absolute, and utter monst-

Sting jumped slightly, his breath hitching in his throat and his mind stuttering to a standstill in an instant- because all of the sudden there came the completely unexpected sensation of someone's hands coming down on his knees, shaky as hell as they seemed to lean into him rather heavily.

W-what the...?

His head snapped up, tear-filled eyes glittering like mad and his face falling in shock, panic, and worry all at once. In front of him was Hora, it was her hands on his knees, her entire body hunched over and shaking terribly as she struggled to keep herself sort of propped up. She'd pushed herself closer to him across the bed, pulling her legs up into her so she could gain a little traction and roll over slightly. She got herself up from laying on her back the little bit she'd managed, but it was barely anything, her body only a few inches off the bed itself and Hora shaking terribly for the sheer effort of just that little movement- and then quickly losing her struggle as her hands on his knees slid a bit, sending her sinking back down into him. Her upper half twisted in rather painful way as her arms and her head with them landed in his lap, laying sort of on her side with her legs tucked underneath her.

Hora let loose a shaky hiss as her arms failed to keep her up and send her falling against Sting, a surge of pain running across her ribs on her left side for the sort of awkward position she was in now. Sting bristled the instant she started to sink, his arms unhooking from having been clutching to his sides and struggling to try and steady or slow her before she was all the way down again. He didn't manage a thing before her full weight fell into him, and that along with the hiss of pain she let out as she went rigid against him made his heart plummet, icy-cold panic rushing though his veins in seconds.

"H-Hora...!" Sting hissed frantically, his hands hovering uncertainly above her and eyes darting frantically about her person and toward the length of bandages wrapped tightly about her torso- right across her ribs on her left side, and that same wound she'd ripped open before trying to catch Rogue. With the way she'd twisted herself now he'd not have been surprised to see scarlet already welling up under the bandages, and he grit his teeth in preparation for it, trembling slightly and frantic. He hadn't even been aware she moved until she'd reached him, and he hated he'd been so caught up in his own head to keep her from doing it at all.

Because she could not lose anymore blood by ripping things open again...!

"S-shit I told you not to move-!" Sting hissed quickly, only to break off slightly when she moved again, her arms snaking around his torso, her hands gripping tightly to him and bunching his shirt in her fingers almost... Desperately.

... W..wait... Is she... Hugging... Me...?

Sting faltered, his panic stalling as quickly as it emerged and being replaced with shock and unease when he felt her shake against him, her hands wavering even as she held on, and her entire figure hitched slightly- Hora sucking in a small, shallow breath of air that was less a breath of air, and more the beginnings of a sob... And then was followed by a few more, her hold around him tightening as her entire figure shuddered with each breathy, shallow breath as she... she...?

Sting blinked slowly, the tears falling from his own eyes never ceasing even for the sudden change in events, his hovering hands lowering a little uncertainly to fall on her shoulders ever so lightly. Hora sniffed, her body jerking a little under his hands as she did it, and then doing so a few more times as her breaths got a little more shaky, and broken apart. He smelled the salty tang of someone else's tears on the air only just before he felt the wet dripping down onto his legs, and he swallowed hard, blue gaze flashing in the dim and the tears falling a little faster from his eyes now.

She's... crying...

His hands shook a little, still hesitant in their place on her back and shoulders, a little unsure of the contact or even what really to do. She was holding on to him so tightly it was almost desperate, and maybe even a little pained and afraid. Like she was afraid he'd pull away, or maybe she just needed him there or risk falling hard back onto the bed she'd only barely managed to pull up from... Whatever the reason, Sting couldn't fathom why she would be holding to him, or crying, or any of it.

How could she stand to even be near him, or want to? After what he-?

"... I... I t..thought... y...you were never... gonna.. f..forgive me..."

Hora's voice came out breathless and so, so rough. It was grating and painful to hear, let alone how awful it must have felt to force those words up and passed her lips- but she forced them anyway, even when she nearly ended up sputtering and coughing for it, and Sting froze.

Hora hissed, her hands around him tightening even further, and shaking with even more fervor because of it. She buried her face into his lap and his shirt, her breath hitching again and so badly she had to pause, and Sting felt her stiffen for a heartbeat or two, holding her breath against whatever surge of pain followed that breath- and all he could do was stare, his mind struggling to process what she'd said.

What... what did she mean forgive her...?

The rigidness in her body unwound after a moment or two, a shaky breath escaping her that sounded more awful than the last- but still, that didn't stop her from stammering out the next bit;

"... I... I t...thought... y... you wo...uld... h...hate me... f-forever for... for all... all t..he... s...secrets... and... m...mess...ing up... O..over and over... W... With everything I did... I...I... I th...ought... t...tch..." She stammered shakily, hugging him tighter, and just about as much as her body and the little strength she even had would allow.

Sting's heart dropped, the blood in his veins turning to ice as the words pierced him straight through his center- and worst was the blade born from that one word; hate

She... She thought he'd hated her-

"I... I don't care... t-that you y-yelled... I d..don't care... a...about any of it... I'm... I'm just... G...glad that... I... I didn't... S...screw everything up... F...forever..."

He was wrong, the worst and most cutting thing of all she said wasn't 'hate'. What hurt more than anything was how her voice was so full of pain, exhaustion, sadness, and relief when she said that. That she hadn't messed everything up, and in a way that might never have been fixed.

His heart broke at the idea that she ever could have thought she'd messed anything up. That she was the one in all of this who had done something wrong, broken things and might never have been able to put them back together again. That even after she had fought so hard to protect everyone else, and did everything she could to put on a brave face and keep going in all the chaos even when she was hurt, over and over... Even after she kept going trying to protect the Guild, her friends, everyone in the city and all those fighting with her- even after all of that, being selfless and steadfast in trying to stop all the madness, and fix the chaos brought from it- she'd still thought she'd ruined things, and made him hate her for all the secrets and whatever else. Even after having that hanging over her head, she still kept trying... She kept trying and fighting still.

And she thought it was all her fault

Sting sucked in a shuddering breath of air that burned in his chest, his heart breaking into a million pieces and the tears in his eyes hot and falling without end. He hunched, folding in on himself and his arms wrapping around her head and shoulders, burying his face into her hair. Guilt, regret, and a million other terrible things joined in with that agonizing sensation of his heart shattering, and all he could do was just hold onto her, and cry.

Cry just like she was, and hold on just as desperately to her as she was to him- and he would not let go, not for a thing. He wouldn't do that to her, not after all of it, not with her clinging to him and so relieved even after all the pain and wounds and how awful she must have been feeling just then. Not with her relieved and happy at the idea that he didn't hate her, that she hadn't screwed it all up- not when those thoughts should never have been on her mind or haunting her in the first place. In the whole of the world, she was the one person who shouldn't have had to feel like she messed up and failed, after all of it, and how hard she tried. The one person who kept trying and fighting so hard even when everything in her world had been turned completely and utterly upside down, and so much of it she kept locked up and buried in herself, suffocating and heavy.

Not her

"... I... I could never... Ever hate you... Hora... Never..." Sting stammered out between cries, "... I... I'm so sorry, Hora... I could never hate you... Ever...a...and... Y... You didn't mess anything u-up, okay...? N-not a thing... Y... You haven't... S..screwed anything up... I promise... N...none of this... None of it's your fault... N.. None of it... I... I'm so sorry... Y... You ever even t..thought... S... Shit... I'm so sorry... Atia... You d-didn't mess up... I s-swear... None of this... is o-on you... You didn't s-screw up... You... You fought so hard... You h-helped so many people... You didn't mess up... I d-don't hate you... I promise you, A-Atia... A-and there's nothing for me to... to f-forgive you for... I promise... I... I'm sorry..."

He felt her stiffen a little underneath him for the words, her crying picking up a bit and that hurt even more. He shut his eyes tight, his chin still settled atop her head and his arms around her body holding a bit more firmly, but not too much- lest he hurt her.

"... I... I'm sorry... I'm the o-one that needs forgiving... Not you... I can't e-ever... T...tch..." He hissed shakily, his voice sputtering to nothing as he grit his teeth hard for the guilt that swelled and rammed all anew into him. For all the awful things he'd said, done, not done- and everything else she'd ended up feeling, blaming, and afraid of. All the things he could never, ever, make up f-

"... T...there's... Nothing...to... F...forgive... Sting..." Hora stammered breathlessly, her voice so terribly low and ragged now from the crying- but it was steady all the same, and so sincere.

Sting choked on a sob that caught in his throat, his breath snatched away in no time at all and his heart breaking all over again in the same instant it leaped.

He didn't deserve that- but all the same she gave it.

All the same, she was there, alive, hurt, and still so ready to just... Forgive, forget it, and move on.

And in that moment it had never been so painfully clear how lucky he was to just have her. All these years, all those adventures, all those mishaps, all the mistakes, laughs, smiles, battles, fights, and heartaches... Years now he had known her, and it had never been clearer how lucky he was to have her as a friend- his best friend.

His best friend who was crying and barely awake she was still so hurt. And his best friend who was still so ready and willing to forgive him even when he'd been a terrible friend that last night, and she must have been in so much pain at that moment- her body all a mess and barely able to even breathe.

Because how could he ever deserve her?

He broke down all the way that time. No more words to stammer out, and no more apologies either. Just sobs that racked his body and kept him from any proper amount of air for so very long. After days of being utterly terrified she wouldn't come back, and that she'd slip through his fingers, and days of being at the beside and holding her hand so lightly and without any certainty he had a right to- days of turmoil festering and coming to a boil now suddenly spilled over, and he had no way of stopping it if even he had a mind to.

He crumbled, holding her and sobbing for what seemed like forever. And he kept crying, even as Hora's weight against him grew steadily heavier while her strength got sapped away by her own tears, and kept stripping away at her all the way until she had no energy left even to cry. It was miracle enough she didn't drift back into the throes of unconsciousness once they had, especially so when she lost her hold on Sting altogether, her fingers slipping on his shirt, trembling and with no strength left in them, just dead weight. But she stayed awake, or mostly so- her ears filled with the sound of his quiet sobs and the feeling of his body hitching underneath her a persistent lifeline that kept her anchored in the waking world... And it was all a small distraction from the heaviness, and deep ache in every inch of her own body. As well as the rather hot throbbing in her left side that seemed to have adopted the rhythm her own heart, each beat radiating through her very bones with a sharp, yet dull burst of pain.

The pain was... Well, awful really- but it had been there at the top of everything else for so long now, it sort of just faded into the background for now. Like something that had become so commonplace your mind started to shuffle it out of direct focus.

It took Sting a little longer than he liked to realize her grip on him had failed, and that her crying had stopped- leaving her breathing rather low, a little fast-paced, and quite shallow. His crying broke off as panic and worry drowned out all the rest, his hold around her slackening as he jerked up a bit, eyes darting frantically again to the bandages about her person and terrified of seeing red. Red that had started to pool and drip onto the bed, stripping away at her strength and life with it while he'd been so wrapped up in his own head and turmoil like an idiot.

His eyes swept over the bandages and over her person in rapidity, terrified and frantic still- but there was no red. And there was no fresh scent of blood on the air either, so he faltered.

Sting swallowed slightly, his eyes moving down and his head tilting a bit to try and get a better look at Hora's face from the rather tough angle he was at above her, and she in his lap. One of his hands came down shakily on her back, the faintly rapid rise and fall of it under his touch making his stomach curl, and especially so for the warmth of her skin against his. Too warm, fevered and sick still, but it wasn't super high... Not that that eased any of his panic and worry just then, mind you.

"... Hora...?" Sting mumbled quickly, his voice quiet, tense, and a little scared too. He wasn't even sure what possessed him to say it, he didn't have any hope for an answer since it had become quite clear she'd passed out again. But regardless, her name came passed his lips without consciously meaning for it to, and he grimaced a bit to himself soon afterwards- only for the frown to get washed away in surprise when she twitched a little.

Hora grumbled quietly under her breath, tilting her head sideways so she could look up at him wearily, those dark blue eyes of hers so glassy and exhausted- but more or less focused on him, and the fact he'd said her name. She'd heard him, she looked up waiting for him to continue his question or train of thought or whatever- she was awake still and lucid, even after crying, moving, and all else.

Sting blinked in shock, his eyes gleaming and lips pulling into a tight line. He sniffed, shaking his head slightly and his hand coming down shakily atop her head, rubbing her hair gently and swallowing back at the way his chest swelled and ached all at once.

This was the longest she'd been awake and not with her mind trapped in some sort of delirious haze in days. And while fear kept him from putting too much faith or stock in that, he couldn't help but hope that maybe... Maybe this time she was actually getting a little better. And he never wanted anything more than for that to be true.

Not even just wanted, but needed it, so so badly- him, and everyone else.

"... S...sorry... I just..." Sting mumbled hoarsely, his free hand moving up to rub at his face and try to wipe away the moisture still there. He sucked in a breath of air and held it, doing his best to steady himself even just a little. His head hurt, pounding and throbbing from all the crying, and the emotion and turmoil that had been eating him up for days only to spill over now- and not all of it was gone, it wouldn't be for a long time, but it was a little lighter now. And because of that, he needed to pull himself together and focus on her instead... And maybe start making up for how terrible a friend he'd been before all this, if making up for it were at all possible.

"... I didn't think you were still awake... Sorry..." Sting apologized quietly, his voice a bit steadier now and a little less hoarse. His hand patted the top of her head lightly and then pulling some trailing strands of her hair back from her face, Hora's eyes dropping closed again for the reply in a silent acknowledgement of what he said, and Sting paused a moment. His eyes flickered away from her face and down her person, scanning the rather awkward way she was positioned and the uneasy tenor of her breathing too... It looked like she was breathing rather shallowly, either because of the fever, or the wounds, or maybe because of the way she was laying. He wasn't sure which it was, but whatever way...?

He bit the inside of his cheek, hesitant for a moment, before he brushed his palm again her cheek, and the other found her shoulder, gently trying to earn her attention again. "... Hora... You can't be comfortable like this..." Sting mumbled, "... You should really lay down again... alright...?" He suggested softly, and for a moment Hora didn't do or say a thing... Until eventually she gave him a weary, almost imperceptible nod, and he swallowed a bit.

She moved only a little, attempting at first to push herself back up again all her own- but almost as soon as she started her body shook too much in protest, and her breathing picked up too. Sting grimaced, quick to snake his hands underneath and steady her, holding most, if not all her weight and his stomach churning all anew. She winced harshly as he helped her sit up again and up out of his lap, the sound of it making Sting flinch and his heart to pick up too- but he couldn't pause.

He swallowed back at the lump in his throat and held on to her steadily, easing her back against the bed as gingerly as was possible, her head falling against the pillow again and her expression full of nothing but tiredness and pain. Sting muttered another hushed apology, his hands trembling again as he adjusted the sheets and pulled them up, his eyes lingering worriedly on the rapid rise and fall of her chest now, her breaths raspy and awful in the quiet air- and it took several minutes for them to quiet and slow down again. Sting sat there beside her the whole time, mumbling another few more anxious apologies and reassurances for her that sounded less for her own good, than it did his. His eyes kept darting back and forth, afraid that moving her again had opened some wound somewhere- a fear that almost kept him from suggesting moving her at all, and he almost regretted it now with how ragged her breathing got... But that raggedness faded after a bit, and there was no awful stain of crimson that appeared in show of wounds getting ripped open again.

When she settled all the way and her breaths evened out a bit, Sting forced himself a breath, wilting a little with his hands finding his knees and shoulders hunching. He hung his head a bit, a million pounds of worry, exhaustion, unease, and strain tugging suddenly harder at his body, and he shivered a bit underneath it all. He willed his body to unwind a little, and the accelerated beating of his heart to taper off again after picking up so quickly- he needed to relax a little, his body couldn't take much more of being so tense on edge after having been that way for days on end.

But hell, relaxing even just smidge wasn't really in the realm of possibility right then. Not even if he might have dared to hope that she was maybe...

Sting forced himself a big sigh and shook his head, shaking himself out a little and straightening up again, eyes still closed.

... Please... Please let her be getting better.

Sting stiffened, his eyes snapping open and heart skipping a beat when Hora's hand bumped against his, her fingers curling around his sleeve and tugging tiredly at it. His gaze matched with hers, her dark blue eyes only barely open and glinting in the dim, and she tugged his sleeve one more time before her her hand got to heavy to hold up. She tilted her head ever so slightly in the direction away from him, and Sting faltered, a little unsure of the feature and what it meant... Before his expression softened, and he nodded stiffly.

He adjusted, moving himself closer and settling down into sitting just beside her. He adjusted the pillow she was laying on, snaking his arm over it and to her other side while Hora shifted enough to let her head lean into his shoulder. Doing so pressed their sides up together, destroying any amount of space or distance, and Sting stiffened a little- knowing full well he was probably grazing the wound over her ribs. But Hora didn't seem to feel it, or otherwise didn't care, she just pressed in against him as much as was possible, her left arm settling atop his chest and her other draping across her stomach to reach him. Sting chewed on the inside of his cheeks, pulling his arm a bit more around her to keep her steadier, and his left hand twining around her right one gently.

Hora's eyes fluttered closed as she sank a little further into him, her breathing slowing down some more as her mind got swallowed up by the exhaustion. She was drifting off fast, like really fast, but she didn't fight it. She just let herself fall freely into the sort of blissful warmth of Sting against her, the heat enveloping her entirely and lulling her mind down into some place empty, and calm, and so very far away.

Sting heard her let out one more small, almost wheezy breath- and then every one after it was low and slow, and a little more even as she fell asleep. He let out a small sigh, his eyes dropping closed and his head tilting to bump gently against the top of hers, his hand holding around her own tightening just a tad.

"... Please be okay, Hora..."

.:+:.

...mmmm... it's... cold again...?

Hora grumbled, her mind getting tugged away from someplace empty and warm without warning, and by a steady chill starting to creep up and seep into her bones slowly. The softness of the bed and the steady feel of Sting beside to her was gone now, replaced with something firmer and slick... icy.

She hissed, a shiver startling her out of a daze and forcing her eyes open. In front of her nose was sheer white, shimmering cold ground covered in sheets of ice and frost that were so thick there was no seeing the bottom, and she was laying on her side atop it. Around her the smooth surface was scratched and criss-crossed by deep grooves and wears, fractured sections where things had impacted hard enough to shatter the ice, and little spots here and there stained pinky-brown, and now covered in a new layer of frost and sleet... but the scent of ash and blood was still there, even underneath it, and Hora's heart skipped a beat.

Wait, this is-?

She scrambled, her body burning with dull fire the instant she moved and shaking in protest as she rushed to push herself off her side and sit up. She looked about quickly over the icy expanse, her blue eyes locking to the only other thing in the vastness beside herself- and her heart leapt and sank in unison, her core wrenching when in that moment she realized she had completely forgotten about him.

She'd not even wondered or anything in waking up- not with Rogue, or Sting, or anytime in between- she'd not thought or wondered since seeing him motionless, burned, and so terribly, terribly wounded- shit, how could I forget...?!

"L-Lixue...!" Hora stammered frantically, bristling and heart pounding when she found him and the horror of it all came flooding back.

The stark and vibrant red of the ice where blood had pooled in a massive circle underneath him, where he'd lay, burned, barely breathing, and covered in that vermilion red. She remembered just how many of the pearly white scales had cracked and chipped away, she remembered the whole sections of hide and flesh gouged out and spilling scarlet still. His wings that had been littered in holes and blackened, jagged, scorched flesh climbing up along his back and all down his body, leaving dark marks and shattered scales all in their quake. She remembered the awful sound of those labored breaths that had only been faintly there- the smear of crimson across his nose, and blood dripping slowly passed his teeth to join the larger whole underneath.

She remembered how still- how limp he had been. Nearly lifeless, and there had been no reaction from the Dragon, not even with the sound of his name, or with all her struggling to drag herself through the blood and reach him, crying and retching up blood, and pleading... Apologizing.

Because all that damage, all the wounds, gashes, burns, and everything else rendering him so still and lifeless, and barely holding on- it was all her fault.

Through all the fighting, and the constant pushing even when she'd already been hurt, and he'd already been damaged by the Possession Link, she'd still pushed harder. She kept pushing, using his Magic over and over in the fight with Callan, each time damaging him even more... And then that last time, that last massive, and grief-fueled attack after Time rewound?

She'd felt something in her center crack, felt the shattering pain all through the Spell, and she'd seen the piece of the Lacrima that was Lixue when she retched up blood afterward. She'd broken him, over and over, and he-

Hora shuddered, tears spilling from her eyes like a storm and in no time at all as she struggled to find some traction and her feet. Her limbs felt so heavy still, every movement and breath was agony still, but she had to get up, reach him, anything.

"L-Lixue...!" Hora snapped hoarsely, her feet sliding on the ice and sending her jolting forward to crash against it painfully. She'd not even moved more than a foot in his direction, or managed to stand all the way before crashing down again, and her voice broke in a yelp at the impact. She cringed, her attention on Lixue broken for half a second as the breath was driven from her, gritting her teeth and shaking as she quickly tried to force herself back up again, tears spattering against the new layer of frost underneath her, melting the crystals.

"... C-Crap I... I didn't... Lixue...!" Hora snapped, her voice cracking halfway through it and making her sputter, and the sputtering make it all the harder to get her feet under her and try again- but she did it anyway.

She didn't even manage three staggering steps before she hit the ground again though, this time the impact doing more than driving the breath from her and instead sending her lungs into a coughing fit. She hunched over on her knees and elbows sputtering and gasping for air she couldn't get, each jolt and spasm like lava in her core and sending sticky crimson to spatter across the ice underneath her in thin, watery dots. She almost tipped over, her head whirling and damn near suffocating by the time her lungs functioned enough to let her get even the tiniest bit of air. Her elbows slipped underneath her and she only barely managed to keep herself sort of straight, fingernails digging into the ice and her teeth gritting so hard they threatened to crack.

S...shit...

She sucked in a shallow breath of air and dug her fingernails in harder, pushing against her hands and forcing herself up from being hunched over, her arms shaking terribly for the effort of it and hissing as she went. She rocked back a bit onto the balls of her feet, stumbling a bit as she did her best to pull her legs underneath her and get steady enough to take her hands off the ice. She paused halfway through it, crouched on the balls of her feet and at something of an angle with one hand still down and being the only thing keeping her from toppling over.

"... s..shit... I... I didn't mean to..." She stammered breathlessly, her voice breaking off before she got to the rest of the apology, and she coughed again. Her lungs burned, rattling a little more and leaving her to sputter for a second or two again- and she couldn't stop it before it came.

... d..damn it... I... I didn't mean to do any of it... I never wanted to hurt Lixue... t...that much...

... he... he can't die... please...

Hora held her breath, muscles tensing and fangs grinding on each other as she started to force herself up no matter how much her legs didn't want to listen.

"... Lixu-" Hora hissed shakily,

"... you have shouted my name three times already... please do not... do it a fourth time..." A very tired, and quite clearly exasperated rumbling voice cut her off before she could finish, and the breath of air Hora sucked in in shock almost had her coughing again.

"... your voice is quite grating... Horatia... even more so... than usual..."

Hora shuddered, her head snapping up and eyes going wide, still tear-filled as she stared. Lixue and his nose were still several feet ahead of her, and too far still- but even so, his words and his breath washed out over the ice to meet her, wispy and faint, but there.

And when her eyes grew level with the icy blue of his gaze, she nearly forgot how to breathe at all- because wha...?

He... He's... Awake and... And scolding me...?!

She stared, her mind stuttering to a standstill and not really sure of what to do, or even really what she was seeing. Because there were gashes and burns and damage still littering every inch of him, still spots were the scales were cracked and missing, the skin sunken in and gashed- but there was no blood. Nothing fresh anyway, just little smears where it had cached and dried around raw wounds and blackened, burned flesh that had already started to curl in on itself... But no, there was no blood. No giant pool of it, no constant stream, no dribble passed his teeth, none of that.

He was laying on the ice as he had been, but this time in a position on his belly with his wings and tail curled in around him- with his neck stretched toward her and head settled down on the shinning surface wearily, and front legs tucked under his chest. She could see his sides rise and fall with his breaths, low, slow, and sort of rumbling- but stronger and more even than they had been before, and now just... Tired almost. Just as tired as his voice was.

Hora blinked, the trembling in her legs growing steadily more violent and moving up to take hold of the rest of her, tears still spilling silently from her eyes still as her mind continued to struggle to pull together and settle. She sucked in a quick breath of air and held it, the pace of the tears trailing down her cheeks quickening as her legs gave out on her. She stumbled back a pace, her feet sliding from underneath her and sending her falling hard on her ass, shaking like a leaf and absolutely fixed, frozen.

Lixue let out a low sigh at the rather stunned and tearful staring, his eyes dropping halfway and looking rather exasperated- and then more so when the tears just kept coming, and kept getting heavier and faster, even with her holding her breath and being rather (perhaps unnervingly) silent.

"... L...Lixue..." Hora stammered after a few heartbeats of nothing, her voice barely a whisper this time and halfway drowned in a sob that never got all the way to being all the way audible. "... Y... you're... alive...?" She whispered and the Dragon let out a rumbling breath that was definitely exasperated.

"... Of course..." He sighed, but Hora shook her head stiffly, shaking a few tears loose in the process as she leaned forward a tad.

"B-But I thought... Y... you were bleeding so much... y..you're so hurt... I... I tried to... to reach you before but... b-but you wouldn't w-wake up... a-and I thought... I t-thought..." She stammered quickly, her voice fading into nothing but a halfway shuddering breath of air, and Lixue blinked slowly.

"... you are alive, are you not...?" The Dragon asked softly, and Hora stiffened at the question, uncertainty flitting quickly across her face and Lixue sighed, his eyes dropping closed. "... hmmph... If I were not alive... you would not be either... which you should have already realized yourself... but you being so emotional seems to have... made that fact slip your mind... hmm...?" He grumbled softly, and Hora swallowed hard. Lixue shifted slightly, eyes still closed and his head shaking once or twice, though he didn't bother to lift his head off the ice to do so... or maybe he just didn't have the energy to.

"... apologies however, that I could not answer you... when you were here before... if I could, I would have... but as it was... I was rather spent..." He mumbled, and Hora stiffened a little at that, her eyes flashing and her stomach twisting itself into a tight knot.

"... I... I'm so s-sorry..." Hora stammered quickly. Lixue cracked on eye open at it, a slightly more weary and exasperated sigh rumbling up from deep in his chest, and this time when he shook his head, it was rather firm and decisive.

"... Do not apologize." He ordered quietly, "... I committed to whatever would come of you... using my Magic as extensively as you did... I was determined to see it through... and it mattered not to me what consequences would come... I was fully prepared to die if it came to that, just as you were, would there have been no other way... this was a choice on both our parts, you did not force me into anything I wasn't willing to go through with... we both walked willingly into danger and possible destruction, Horatia... so do not apologize..."

Hora sniffed, her breath hitching in her throat and the tears spilling still as she shook her head rather quickly, scrunching her eyes closed and bowing her head as she bent forward, her hands gripping tightly to her ankles.

"... b...but... Lixue... I broke you..." Hora hissed, her voice cracking painfully on the word. "... s...shit... a...after all the damage Jiemma did... I just... I kept chipping away at you... breaking you more... y... you're hurt all over... y-you almost died... a-and even if you were... were willing... o-or p-prepared for... tch..." She whispered, bending further in on herself and her lungs burning hotter and hotter with every breath- and every word breaking all the more because of it.

"... I... I should... I should n-never ha...have pushed s..so hard... k...kept pushing... ...t...to the po...int y...you... y...you're so h-hurt... I...d...amn i-it..."

Lixue let out another breath, a silent one this time, the Dragon watching quietly as Hora folded in on herself even further, her forehead almost to her feet now and absolutely gasping for air. She was likely to start into another coughing fit, and quickly so- which would have been rather inconvenient at that moment, and quite unpleasant... but it was also quite agitating. The tears, the guilt- and Lixue's lips curled slightly for a few seconds while Hora continued to sputter and sob.

Humans were rather emotional just in general, but she was more so than most... understandably perhaps, for the life she had lived. But Lixue was exhausted, and hurt, and he had very little patience or energy for it.

"... you foolish girl... do you not see yourself...?" The Dragon rumbled next, a touch irritated now and Hora stiffened at it, her gaze trailing back up toward him slowly and seeing the irritation clear in his eyes too. "... you are broken too, though you seem to have entirely looked over the fact... Your body is a mess, you have been torn to shreds, bled out, burned, frozen, had your heart stop- you have been wrenched apart, a dozen times over in all of this. Do not torture yourself over what has been done unto me, because what you've suffered is beyond what I had to endure... for once, worry about yourself..." Lixue grumbled lowly, huffing slightly and Hora blinked, her lips pulling into a tight line and quiet. "... You are in far worse shape than I, so spare me the apologies... and please, cease with the tears... lest you end up coughing up more blood..." He added, huffing again and Hora swallowed, her eyes dropping from him and into her lap uneasily.

It didn't matter what he said about it not being her fault, or about him being prepared for things to go badly for him... even if he had set himself to it, there was no overlooking the fact that she had forced them both to keep going. Even if he'd given her leave to do so, his permission, and worked with her the whole time, or any of that- he was still something of an unwilling passenger, and she had gone so far... too far.

It was her choice to keep going, to keep fighting and keep pushing it, even when she knew it was all gonna end badly. Even if Lixue had agreed to keep going, it was still her decision in the end and it was her who had pushed them both far beyond what they could handle, and had set them on that path toward death and destruction. She broke him, even if he didn't mind she had or care- she still broke him, hurt him, and almost killed him. And that was not something that could simply be waved away, or justified with the fact that she'd ended up just as badly off, or worse, than he had in the end.

She chose to push things way, way too far- and Lixue, Sting, Rogue, and everybody else were paying the price for that, all in their own ways. She'd hurt them all, so badly, and that... that was something she wasn't sure she could ever forgive herself for, or make up for.

Lixue could practically see all these thoughts running through her head, the doubt and the unwillingness to believe him, and the inability to listen, trust, and let go. He knew her too well, all these years of her bottling up guilt and self-hatred for herself and her mistakes, the fears that she'd never fix them... he knew her, much too well, and he growled.

Hora flinched slightly for the sound, her eyes flitting up toward the Dragon again and completely unsure of why he growled at all, but she had no time to really wonder on it. Because soon after looking up she got rather preoccupied with the fact that his tail had suddenly swept out and wrapped around her tightly, Lixue jerking her forward with it and dragging her across the ice toward his face with no warning and no hesitation- and Hora could do nothing but sputter a bit in surprise, completely at his mercy.

Her body got pushed easily over the slick surface and toward him in no time at all, her momentum only halting again when she rather unceremoniously collided with his nose and bounced back with a small hiss of pain. The impact would have sent her a kidding away from him again, but his tail curled behind her and kept her still.

His tail and his head both dwarfed her by quite a bit, the tip of his nose level with her chest where she was sitting, and their eyeline mostly level for it. Lixue's breath was warm and frosty as it billowed out over her, almost showering her, and Hora grit her teeth, confused, aching all over again from the impact, and even a little agitated now.

"... Tch... What the hell, Lixue...?" Hora muttered lowly, and the Dragon huffed again.

"You are making me repeat myself, and I am in no mood for it Horatia." Lixue muttered lowly, and she faltered a bit at the reply. "I told you this before- you have hurt people, mostly without want to, and you do feel regret for it. But of anyone, you have hurt yourself the most by far. You have hurt no one more than yourself, and that is because you have so little regard for your well-being over that of everyone else's. You will rip yourself to shreds and to the point you might kill yourself, if that means protecting the people you care for. You have done that time and time again, and you have done it again now- though this time to an extreme beyond any time before this, admittedly." Lixue grumbled, and Hora swallowed a bit. "And yes, you pushing things as hard as you did this time around did hurt others. Myself not included, seeing what happened to you and the effects of Over-Drive have surely hurt those you call your friends and family. Because seeing anyone you care about in such a bad way would be unpleasant, and painful- no matter who you are." Lixue told her lowly and Hora wilted a little under the words, her eyes dropping from his and to the ground as her stomach knotted even further, and the guilt already swirling in her core sharpened too.

She knew that she'd hurt them, scared them, worried them- of course she knew that, how could she not? After the way Sting had broken down sobbing earlier? Or Rogue had pushed himself to the point of collapse because he'd been so worried about her? Yukino, Lucy, Happy, Wendy, Lyon, Natsu and everyone else all frantic after what happened with the Possession Link and hearing about it? Or all the other times everyone she knew and loved had been crying and terrified the last few days on her behalf? The last few months even?

She hunched a little in front of him and Lixue blinked, the tip of his tail twitching a touch irritably, and he let out another big breath that sent frost raining down over her, and glittering pieces dusting her hair and shoulders.

"... it hurts them, because they care for you. And that is not a bad thing, Horatia." Lixue added lowly and she stiffened against it. "Nor is you pushing things so far necessarily bad either, given the situation. Things were chaotic, and the fervor in which you fought and what you did helped plenty of people, and even saved the lives of more than a few, do not forget that." He rumbled, his voice softening a tad and his nose inching forward enough to bump gently against the top of her bent head. "... Do not dwell on what hurt your actions might have caused, what you did and fought for is worth more than any guilt... And no one will hold any of it against you. They will perhaps scold you for how little you put your well-being above others, as I have already have, but that is all. From here all that will truly matter to any of them, is that you are alive, and that you recover. You being alive is enough." Lixue told her softly, and Hora sniffed, holding her breath for a moment when the sudden and totally uncharacteristically gentle tone of his voice had her heart feeling like it was breaking in two.

T..tch...

"... So please for now, focus on yourself... At least as much is possible for you, you stubborn girl." Lixue rumbled softly, nuzzling slightly under her chin to bring her head up a bit from being bent, and pushing his nose lightly against her jaw. He leaned into her to force her to straighten up a bit more, and Hora grit her teeth, eyes shut tight and her body resisting the motion faintly still... Stubborn indeed.

"... Hmph... You have things you still need to do and say, yes..? A lifetime of things unsaid... A brother you lost and found, and who still does not know you are his kin... You promised to tell them all, did you not...?" Lixue pressed softly, and Hora stiffened at it, her heart skipping a painful beat and her teeth gritting harder. She sucked in a shallow breath of air and it hitched in her throat, her heart and stomach curling so hard she wanted to retch, and she definitely couldn't breathe.

And then it all just got even harder with what Lixue said next, still in that unbearably soft and much too gentle tone she had heard seldom before, and much more often the last few days;

"... You cannot make good on those promises if you do not recover from what has happened, Horatia. You need to focus on healing, so that you can tell them all you wish to... Just live."

Hora shuddered, her voice breaking on the shaky breath she was forced to let out, and she crumbled all the way that time. Her arms moved up and circled about his muzzle, it being much too big to really get a good hold of so she just hugged him as best she could manage, her body leaning into his massive frame and Lixue let out a low breath at it.

Hora buried her face against him, pearly white scales covered in frost and cool against her forehead, hot tears spilling from her eyes and wearing tracks into the glittering blanket of cold. Lixue nudged his head further against and underneath her, holding her weight up entirely and his tail curling in around them to steady her all the further as she cried, his body encasing her on all sides now and so warm and cold all at once. Cold as ice and covered in chilly frost, but underneath it was this bright, steady warmth that glowed dimly like the embers of a fire. It felt so nice she ended up crying harder because of it- sadness, guilt, pain, exhaustion- just a million things all wrapped into one, building up like an ocean behind a barely holding wall, and his words broke that wall so, so easily. Broke it, and leaving her crumbling and sobbing all over again while holding on to him for dear life.

It was all just so much, the last few days of her world getting turned upside down. For finding out about Yukino getting thrown out of SaberTooth, and then Lucy, Lector getting taken, the Eclipse Gate, the Possession Link, her being supposed to have died, the Dragons, Other Rogue, Callan, Gray alive and then dead, then alive again- it was too much.

Everything had spiraled so far out of control and kept getting all the crazier, and she had had no time to think, process, or even breathe before something else turned completely insane. It had kept piling up, one thing after the other until it was a summit's height and weight hanging over her head- and now after struggling to hold that immense weight up and keep it at bay, her strength failed. She cried, and sobbed, and shattered- and like Sting before her, Hora muttered a thousand apologizes and choked 'I'm sorry's' that became more and more broken as time kept on. Lixue just tightened his tail around her, pulling her closer against him and his icy blue eyes falling shut.

She should have felt dwarfed and vulnerable for just how massive he was compared to her, but she didn't. Being engulfed by his sheer size was almost comforting, and she wanted nothing less than for it to leave her all alone again once this strange place somewhere in her mind, or whatever, was gone again.

"... rest, Horatia..." Lixue murmured at length once her cries had made her voice hoarse enough she ended up sputtering and coughing again after trying to stammer out yet another apology. He sounded weary, his voice barely above a whisper and rumbling deep in the back of his throat, the vibrations moving up through her trembling body and soul. Both the rumbling, and the exhaustion quickly started tugging her mind away from that vast, icy place and toward somewhere blissfully empty and calm.

"... sleep..."

.:+:.

One moment he was turning toward the door, and in the next moment he blinked and there was a roof straight ahead, and everything else was... sideways.

He blinked slowly, eyes narrowing in confusion and mind sluggish and slow as he glanced from the roof to his left, red eyes dull and tired as they traced along cushions.

... wait... no... I'm laying... on a... couch...?

He paused, his eyes narrowing a little further in confusion as they dropped down to find Frosch tucked in the crook of his elbow and with their head on his chest, fast asleep and letting out snores that sounded like little mews.

But... How did I get here...? I don't-

Rogue went rigid, the blood in his veins turning to ice quicker than his mind could finish the question and it all came flooding back in in rapid time.

He was a second away from jolting up off the cushions without a thought to how doing so would jostle Frosch awake, his eyes darting quickly to his left and scanning the room frantically searching for the center- but Yukino was sitting in a chair just beside him and blocked any hope of seeing what he was looking for. He went to try and sit up to see passed her, but Yukino's attention snapped to him the moment she heard him move even the little bit, and she leaned in, hands up and motioning for him to stop before he could get very far.

"H-Hold on, please don't move...!" The white-haired Mage murmured quickly, her voice hushed. "E-everything's fine Rogue, there's no need to jump up or anything, I promise...!" Yukino assured him quickly and Rogue stalled, grimacing slightly and looking unsure, which caused Yukino to force a breath. Her hovering hands lowered down into her lap slowly, and she shook her head one more time. "I promise, everything's alright for now Rogue... please just take it easy, okay...?" Yukino mumbled softly and Rogue hesitated a heartbeat more, before forcing himself to relax a tad, swallowing.

"... what happened...?" Rogue asked quickly, his own voice breathless and much too scratchy on his own ears, and he swallowed hard against the tickle that rose in his throat. He grit his teeth a second and shook his head, eyes still stuck steadily on Yukino and fear still so clear on his face. "W-what about Hora...? Is she-?" He asked next, and the uncertainty that made it's way into Yukino's expression had him cutting himself off, and paling. Yukino noticed the reaction right away and shook her head quickly, her hands coming out of her lap again and waving them in front of her a little nervously.

"N-no..! She's... she's okay... I think..." Yukino told him, before trailing off a bit herself and her eyes dropped to the floor a moment, biting the insides of her cheeks and her hands clasping together a little tightly in her lap. "... She's alive anyway, and her fever's gone down a lot... But some of her wounds are still infected... And reopened too..." Yukino mumbled softly with a sigh. "... Wendy and Sherria Healed her a bit more earlier... And I think maybe she was awake for a little with Sting... But she's out again..." The Celestial told him, her head tilting slightly to her left in a gesturing behind her. She shifted slightly in her seat to give Rogue a better view, his eyes dancing quickly passed her and locking where he'd been searching for moments before.

There to that massive bed in the center of the room and the familiar heads of pale blonde and multicolor orange, both messy and tangling with one another as Sting held Hora close to him. The White Dragon Slayer's arms were snaked around her, Hora's head leaning into his shoulder and both of them fast asleep, with no sign of stirring anytime soon. Curled up on Hora's other side and with his head tucked under her arm was Lector, similarly deep in sleep and tail curled around Hora's arm lightly.

Rogue swallowed hard as he gave them all a quick once over, his nose twitching and stomach churning when he caught the scent of blood and tears on the air- not fresh, but definitely there, and heavy enough that both had been shed in rather an abundance earlier.

"... Sting too... He's exhausted... Everyone is..." Yukino mumbled quietly, her eyes lingering on those on the bed for a heartbeat more, before she looked back toward Rogue, and he caught her eye again. "Speaking of, how are you feeling, Rogue...? You collapsed earlier, out of nowhere... You really gave everybody a scare you know..." Yukino said a tad anxiously, and Rogue stiffened at the words, his eyes widening a little in surprise.

Collapsed...?

He glanced away from her, swallowing slightly as he let his head fall back against the arm of the couch again, one hand moving up to brush his hair out of his face, his fingers staying stuck in and trembling faintly in his hair, and eyes falling closed. He let out an uneasy breath, and grimaced faintly too.

Some amount of tension and panic unwound from him just then, knowing at least nothing awful had happened while he'd been unawares ushering in a sudden feeling of dizziness... rather a lot of dizziness actually, and he bit the insides of his cheeks against it.

... Shit... I guess that makes sense I passed out... And why I don't... Remember anything...

"... Rogue...?" Yukino pressed after a few moments with no reply, and his hand fell slowly down his face again, a shaky breath escaping him.

"... Yeah I'm... just... I'm a bit dizzy... And tired..." He replied softly and Yukino swallowed slightly. She shifted forward to be on the edge of her seat, her hand reaching forward slowly and earning Rogue's halfway open eyes in weary question. The Celestial Mage let her hand come down tenderly on his forehead, grimacing a bit to herself and eyes glittering as she did so.

"... You're running a fever still... And you're very pale..." She mumbled, "... You really need to eat something, Rogue. And rest some more. You haven't really done either in days... You've pushed yourself too far, especially after all the fighting and getting hurt..." Yukino told him, her hand pulling back slowly and twining with her other in her lap, her shoulders hunching just a tad. "... I know you're worried about Hora, Rogue... We all are... But you have to worry about yourself for a little while now, you're going to make yourself worse than you already did if you don't try and take it easy." Yukino told him, her voice as firm and steady as she could make it- though she wavered a little on Hora's name despite herself. Rogue swallowed at the words, his eyes moving from her and dropping closed again with a small breath... and after a heartbeat or two he nodded stiffly in understanding, though it made his stomach curl to do so.

He didn't want to 'take it easy' or focus on anything else but Hora- but he had to relent anyway, he knew that. He knew he pushed it too far, he even sort of realized then that he'd been progressively feeling worse and worse earlier without a thought or care to what that meant, or why... he'd stuffed it all away all up until he'd ended up hitting the floor.

Rogue sighed, his hand shaking as he pinched the bridge of his nose and swallowed against the headache pounding at the back of his skull, and the slowly worsening sense of dizziness and nausea creeping up quickly. His stomach churned and he felt like retching at even the mention of 'eating something', and there came a sharper ache and dull pain flaring through every inch of him at the idea of even trying to get to his feet.

So no, he didn't really want to rest, or sit there, or focus on him- but he hadn't a choice...... and besides... I don't think I can get up right now anyway.

He swallowed, his hand falling again onto his chest wearily while his ears trained toward the center of the room and the slow rhythm of breaths coming from Hora, Sting and Lector over that way- slightly shallow and wheezy still in Hora's case, and he frowned a bit for it. But she was breathing, and it even sounded more level and even than it had the last time he'd heard it... so maybe though he didn't want to, and was afraid of doing so- going back to sleep was not so terrible of an idea.

He could live with what Yukino said and rest, and maybe when he woke up again nothing will have gone wrong, or gotten worse... maybe... maybe Hora will-

Rogue grit his teeth slightly, another twisting of his stomach and soul bringing the retching sensation back, heavier this time and he had to hold his breath against it.

Shit... please... please let me have that maybe.

Let her... be okay... I know I don't... I don't deserve to want that, n-not after what I did... what that Other Version of me did... but...

Please... Let her be okay.

---

Hello hello!

Here we are with another long, angsty, and not terribly eventful chapter- but hopefully you guys like it anyway? :D

Thank you all for your continued reading and support! I know it's been awhile, I'm sorry for the wait! But thank you for sticking with me, truly!

I do have to make a note though- this story was never intended to make it passed the Grand Magic Games Arc, so we have hit our FINAL chapters! We will get through probs 3-5 more planned chapters and stuff, but I never had any plans to write for anything passed the GMG ;w;

I will perhaps throw in some chapters that sort of wrap up the next few years and arcs in such, but I haven't really decided yet. I love this story with all my heart, but from the beginning it has always ended right around the party the king throws for the Guilds, and I have never considered anything afterward. So this is just a forewarning! (I really hope that doesn't turn any of you guys off from reading though, or make you too mad at me QwQ )

Anyhoo- next chapter please prepare for the RogueXHora content I know you have all been waiting for! And some stuffs with everybody else all hoping she's okay! QwQ

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