"Gene!" Melfina gasped. Had that just... was McDougal really... did he just...

"...No... Gene," she groaned, crawling over to him shakily, slowly.

Jim didn't care now. He would force his damn body to react; he was getting over there.

"ANIKI!!" He screamed as he pulled desperately out of Aisha's support, making her yelp "Jim!" in surprise. He fell immediately, landing hard on his chest and knocking the wind painfully out of him... but before Aisha could even try to help him he pushed himself up again.

"ANIKI!!" He screamed again as he forced himself to a stand. He managed a few clumsy, painful steps before falling again. He cried out as his lungs forced his air out suddenly for a second time, but he grit his teeth and pushed again. He continued it... staggering desperately, slamming into the ground, and hurting more and more without caring... until he reached Gene.

"Aniki! Aniki, say something!" he yelled. Gene heard his voice and opened his eyes, but had to wait some moments for them to fall into focus. He eventually saw Jim and Melfina above him.

"Hey, Jim... you all right?"

"Of course I am! Come on, get up, aniki! We've gotta get you help, right away!" Jim said, the urgency ringing in his voice. There was no way he would lose him...

Gene groaned in agreement, then clenched his eyes and moaned in pain.

"Gene!" Melfina gasped. "Hang in there!"

"We need to get that thing out somehow!" another voice pointed out. Gene opened his eyes again and made out Aisha.

"Yes, but... how do we do that?" Mel said, despondent.

Aisha was silent a moment, then spoke again. "I dunno... I guess we could pull it out..."

Gene winced at the thought. Jim shook his head.

"We can't do that... it's a Scrappler blade. If we pulled it out, it would take too much with it and we'd never be able to patch him up again."

Aisha paused, and then spoke again. "How about we push it all the way through him, then?"

Now Gene made a "kghh" sound from the back of his throat. Jim merely sighed unhappily and shook his head again.

"That would do just as much damage at this point. Honestly, I don't know how we can do this without making things worse. Aniki, hang in there... we'll think of something," he promised, his voice slightly cracking. There had to be some way...

Suzuka, who had been slowly walking towards Gene ever since Ron McDougal's death, finally reached them. She frowned when she saw just how much blood Gene had spilled, not only from the Scrappler wound... in fact, since the blade was still in, it wasn't bleeding too terribly now. But Gene had been shot *many* times, and various blades had found their target as well.

"Hey, Suzuka," Gene groaned out in a raspy voice upon catching sight of her. "Got any ideas?"

She was silent for a while. Eventually, she replied, "I have none."

At Suzuka's surrender, Melfina visibly sank in heart while Jim glared at the ground with fierce intensity. Gene closed his eyes softly and took a deep breath. He didn't want to die now...

"What is WRONG with you?!"

Everyone stared at Aisha. She had an angry, determined look on her face.

"Come on, Gene Starwind! Snap out of it, right now! Take it like a man and rise to fight!"

"Aisha!" Jim growled, furious. He'd had enough of her thoughtless comments at times like this. "Can't you shove your tactless personality somewhere else for one second?!"

"NO!" she snapped back. "You listen to me! Gene," she said in a quieter but no less firm tone, turning her attention back to him. "It's true, you may come close to giving up every once and a while, but in the end you always come up with something!! You've saved your life and everyone else's every time, and all because you stood back up and fought! Don't give up now! You can beat this!"

"I haven't... given up," Gene groaned. "It's... just that things... don't look too great... right now..."

Aisha frowned, looking like she still had something to say, but instead she just sighed. "Aw, geez... if only you were an immortal Ctarl-Ctarl... we'd be able to rip that thing out any way we wanted and you'd heal fast enough to survive..."

Suzuka blinked.

"Well, he's not one, so we'll have to think of another way," Jim sighed.

"Wait, wait," Suzuka said, almost breathless. "Repeat what you just said, Aisha."

Aisha tilted an eyebrow at her. "Why? I said it's too bad he's not an immortal Ctarl-Ctarl..."

"...because then we could take the Scrappler out and he'd heal fast enough to survive," Suzuka finished for her.

"Right. But like Jim said he isn't, so it doesn't matter!" Aisha said, annoyed.

"Suzuka," Jim said, eyeing her. "Do you have an idea?"

Everyone's eyes fell on her, and Gene rolled his head over slowly to watch her expression. Suzuka was silent for a moment, thinking it through... but then she smiled slightly.

**We can pull it off,** she thought, a spark of hope lighting up her face.

"It seems I've thought of something," Suzuka told them.

*************

What's Suzuka thinking of now... and will it work? Let's just say I think Gene's gonna need something to bite down on. You'd better get ready! (The tranquilizer, that is)