Consequences of Capture

By Dixxy

Chapter Eight: Waiting

Sage was briefly aware that some sort of a power had been able to nag him awake, told him to get to Cye, and he obeyed without question, because of a part of him had awoken with a sense of dread. When he entered the room it was dark, but instinct and the smell of blood made him turn the lights on. When he saw Cye's tattered- that was the best word for his condition- body lying on the floor in a puddle of blood, Sage couldn't help but swear and scream at the situation.

No wonder the force had told him to go to Cye! His friend was suffering from wounds that would have been unquestionably fatal if they weren't healed right away! Sage was down on his knees by Cye's side, swearing and screaming at the top of his lungs, especially after the young Ronin's eyes closed. Tears began to stream from Sage's eyes.

The blood loss was severe, and the wounds were horrible to look at. Quickly, once Sage collected himself enough to function, he outstretched his arms and began to concentrate on the healing powers he had. He ran his hands over Cye's naked form, radiating the healing magic from his limbs to his friend. Slowly, with a soft sort of crackling sound, the wounds began to close up most of the way, but they wouldn't fully heal despite Sage's efforts.

"I'm exhausted," he said aloud, breathing heavily as he looked over Cye's frightening pale, but still breathing, figure. "Of course I'm not functioning at one-hundred percent! I'm not strong enough in this state- I'm frantic, I'm tired, and I don't even have my armor to help me! DAMN IT!"

Sage needed help- fast.

Kento. Sage bit his bottom lip. Kento didn't like waking up in the middle of the night, much like Rowen didn't like getting up early in the morning. Still, once he heard enough to know Cye was hurt Sage was sure that Hardrock would be wide awake and ready to help him. He wasn't sure what help his other friend would be just yet, but he needed him badly.

Sage was tempted to go to Kento's room by himself, but then he saw several creatures still lying around. Judging from the splattered blood on their bodies he guessed they were his attackers, but as to why they were unconscious he wasn't sure. Had Cye fought them all off? It didn't seem likely considering what a number they did on him, but something beat them down. They were down, but not dead- some of them were beginning to move, and Sage did NOT want to deal with the little things right then. If they made that bad of a mess out of Cye, and they were able to do the same with him, then they'd all be goners. Sage was the only one out of the three who would use healing magic, and even though she wanted to use them, he had a funny feeling Trulpa wouldn't be much help.

Carefully, Sage collected Cye, causing the younger to moan in pain. "Shh, it's going to be all right, Cye- I'm going to help you. I'm going to keep them away from you, don't worry. We're going to fix you up and you'll be as good as new," he consoled. Sage chose to speak in Cye's native tongue, English, which was a language he himself had grown-up around due to his mother's upbringing as an American.

Sage felt a hand weakly grip the edge of his bathrobe. Cye was waking up and reaching out to him. Drunk, hazy eyes looked back at Halo, begging him to stop the pain in any way he could. The blonde shook his head, insisting he not do anything. "Save your strength- please," Sage pleaded.

"Sage. . ." Cye's voice was weak and crackling. He needed help- fast.

Hoping and praying like he'd never prayed before, Sage teleported back to his bedroom.

~

"Kento! KENTO!"

Kento groaned, batting his hand at the offensive voice. "Go'way. Wanna sleep."

"Kento, this is serious!"

"Sleep. . ." Kento grabbed an extra pillow and stuffed his head under it.

"Kento, Cye is DYING!"

Hardrock bolted straight up in bed, now very awake to see a frantic and distraught Sage looking at him, barely dressed in his bathrobe. His hair was a mess and his eyes had heavy bags under him, matched with tears and redness. But the most noticeable thing about Sage that he noticed was the bright crimson liquid that smeared his clothing (which consisted of a hastily thrown-on bathrobe- very un-Sage like) and skin. "What!?"

"He was attack by these creatures! My God, I think they were trying to eat him alive!" said Sage, who was now frantically pacing back and fourth, his voice shaky from the tear wracked sobs he was emitting. "I don't have enough energy to heal him enough- I'm too tired but I need to heal him or else he could die! Oh, Kento, he's lost so much blood, I don't know what to do! I don't want Cye to die!" He collapsed into Kento, clutching his shoulders as he cried into his chest.

Kento was stunned speechless. "Where is he now?"

Sage sniffed. "My room."

"Then THAT'S where we're going!" Kento clutched Sage tightly and teleported them back to Halo's room. After the feeling slight dizziness that sometimes came from the feeling of existing, then not existing, and suddenly existing again faded, the two scrambled to Sage's bedside, where Sage had wrapped Cye in a blanket.

Kento sat down next to Cye, who was breathing very slowly in concentrated, heavy breaths. His eyes were wide open, but it didn't seem like he was quite there. Cye's skin was a cold and clammy, obviously from the blood loss Sage had described. "Cye. Oh, Cye," Kento said, brushing his fingers over Cye's frightfully cold forehead. His friend twisted away, weakly crying out.

"Oh Cye!" Sage cried.

Kento bit his bottom lip, cringing to see Cye in such agony. "How could this happen?"

"I don't know!" Sage moaned, falling to his knees. He hugged himself, giving Kento the idea he was ashamed. "I saw all of these things lying on the floor. . . they were like little gargoyles. I think they were the ones who did this to him." He sniffled. "Kento, I want to go home."

Kento frowned. Despite the fact that a bad situation was getting progressively worse, they couldn't forget that they were all longing for home, even Sage, who seemed to have some sort of issue with his folks. Hardrock closed his eyes tightly as he thought about his own family that he, too, missed dearly. His family loved him so much, and he loved them back. And now he was beginning to question whether or not he'd ever see them again.

I can't worry about that now. None of us are questioning that we don't like it here, but right now we need to make sure Cye stays here in the world of the living, Kento thought to himself. Kento inched slightly closer to Cye. "Cye. . . hang in there, buddy. Sage and I are going to make sure you get out of this one okay. Hold on."

Slowly, Cye reacted. "Ken. . . to. . ."

Kento held back a cringe. "Oh, Cye. . ."

Sage stood up, brushing his robe. "I want to try healing him again," he said. Sage's eyes were still tear-stained, and he still looked tired, but Kento knew that this was his friend's only chance. As tired as he was, they couldn't afford for Sage to rest up to full strength- Cye might not survive long enough for Sage to do that.

But even if Sage heals him. . . Kento thought. Sage could heal wounds, but he wasn't sure if he could replace blood in the same process. So while Sage was healing the wounds on Cye's body, he'd work on replenishing all of his friend's lost blood. But the question was, how did he do that?

Minutes passed as Kento sat to think about how to counteract the blood loss. Sage seemed to be regaining his composure as he healed Cye, who's wounds were lessening and lessening to the point were Kento would barely see them anymore. Still, his skin was so pale. . .

Kento sighed. "Is there anything in your spell book? On blood loss?" he asked. His eyes grew wide as his desperation became very evident. Kento's voice started to quiver as tears began to stream down his face. "The Halo armors heal- they must have SOMETHING on severe blood loss! They have to!"

"Well. . . I haven't looked through the entire book yet. Kento, there is an index and a table of contents- see if you can find anything in there on it," Sage said, still working on healing Cye. "Good news is the bleeding had stopped." He paused, and Kento could feel Sage tense up. "Those creatures."

"Yeah, what about 'em?" asked Kento, who was now flipping through the book like his very life depended on it. "Ah! Here it is! You're going to need some extra supplies for this but it doesn't seem too complicated! Just take a few hairs off his head for his essence and-"

"No! He might have an infection on top of the injuries and blood loss!" said Sage.

"And. . . we aren't even sure what they are. . ." said Kento. He shook his head. "I wasn't the best student in the biology lab, but I DO know that Cye needs blood to help fight off any infection that might exist. If he doesn't have enough blood to fight an infection off, then we might as well give up now."

"Excuse me!?" asked Sage. "You're going to let Cye-"

"That NOT what I said- what I said is that without an immune system Cye is gone if there's an infection. Therefore we need to get that back before we do anything else," said Kento. "THEN we can worry about whatever lovely little diseases those things were carrying."

"All right," said Sage. "You see if you can find out what those. . . those. . . THINGS are, and I'll work on the spell to increase his amount of blood." He smiled at Kento as he stood and walked towards the book, his night robe flowing softly as he moved. "You know what, Kento?"

Kento stopped in his tracks to look at Sage. "Yeah?"
"I never gave you enough credit for your intelligence."

Hardrock wasn't sure what to say. "And?"

"I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Now give me a chance to find those damn things!"

~

Kento returned an hour later with a slim volume. Cye was in bed while he caretaker was sitting on the floor, his back up against the foot of the bed. Sage now looked beyond exhausted, the bags under his eyes heavier than before. Even his hair seemed to have lost some of its life and volume. He needs to get some sleep REAL soon or else he's gonna get sick or snap like a twig.

Kento glanced at Sage's bed to see that the color had returned to Cye's skin and he seemed to be sleeping a little better. His fingers were gently gripping Sage's pillow and his face only showed slight signs of discomfort, a huge improvement over the hordes of pain he'd had to endure earlier that evening.

"What did you find?" Sage asked.

"They're actually called gargoyle gremlins," said Kento. He had an almost sad look on his face as he slid next to Sage, tapping his fingers on the volume. "They aren't a kind of demon and they aren't venomous, but I would still have something on hand to fight off an infection with- venom or no venom, they probably have some sort of germ on them. Actually, they were once a very peaceful species that lived off of plants- they were initially herbivorous."

"Okay, so why did those gremlins suddenly decide Cye was a salad?"
"They didn't- they saw him as flesh and blood. Talpa and Trulpa cursed the entire species with a horrible thirst and hunger for. . . well. . . you saw what happened to Cye. If they don't satisfy their curse, they die a horrible, painful death that involves all of their organs bursting inside of their bodies and their nervous system going out of whack, leaving them twitching blobs of flesh for as long as three days," said Kento. He turned his head away. "Three days of suffering, and once the process begins it's nearly impossible to stop it even with what they crave. In a way, they're like crack babies- their parents were addicted and because they were in the womb, now they're addicted, too."

Sage's face twisted into one of unease as his complexion turned a slight shade of green. The truth about the origin of the gargoyle gremlins was disturbing the bearer of the Halo armor, and Kento couldn't help but agree with him. "That's disgusting- why would they do that?"

"They crave evil, what else? Talpa and Trulpa probably LIKED the idea of creatures like the gargoyle gremlin of today. In fact, the gargoyle gremlins weren't the only species to be affected- there are probably thousands of others," said Kento. "We can feel bad for them all we want, but we need to beware of them. Their ancestors may have remembered better times, but two-thousand years of this savage desires must have made them forget what it used to be like for them. To them, that's the way the world works. So we need to know the way they work and avoid them."

"Right," said Sage.

Kento folded his arms. "Sage, is something wrong?"

"Yes- it's Cye."

Kento's heart nearly stopped. He was on his feet in an instant to look over his best friend. His chest was moving slowly up and down, meaning he was breathing and therefore alive. Cye was alive, he had blood, and he had been healed. What was Sage's problem, then?

"It's his legs," Sage said. "Those gremlins did a lot of damage, but Cye's legs got the worse damage." He gulped, clenching his eyes shut as tears escaped from the corners of his eyelids. "Depending on how bad the damage to the muscles and ligaments was. . . Kento. . . Cye might not be able to walk."

~

Oops! I made a mistake- in chapter one, Sage started off by telling everyone that he was overdue for a call home, and everyone else chimed in. Later, Cye and Kento discussed how Sage made no motion to call home, yet everyone else had lengthy conversations. This should be changed by the time this chapter is posted. If not, it will be amended quickly.

I'm in a Cye tormenting mood, can you tell?

Today is my birthday, so I've decided to give you all a present- more of this story AND Ronin Senshi Legends. Well, part of it, anyways.

Harry: Ooo. . . yea, that could've turned into a bad situation fast. REAL fast. I love Mirror and Image's stuff, though I never liked Rose. And I swear it's NOT because of the fact she's a Cye Mary Sue. I don't hate every Cye Mary Sue out there, I don't! I can't think of the story, but there is one very likable Cye hook-up with a girl whose name began with a "P". It wasn't a common name, either. Damn, not I'm pissed I can't remember her name. That last chapter got bloody, and this one featured a panicky Kento and Sage, though all things considered they handled it well.

Firestorm: There's a name I don't see very often. How ya doing? Oh, I remember this now- I emailed you about it. For anyone who's reading this, the fic Firestorm challenged me to write was actually the first attempt at RW fanfiction I ever made! It was never finished or published and though I apparently decided to delete most of it without a backup, I still have some of it. But it's bad, so if I answer it it'll be basically new material.

Crystal Cat: They say you hurt the ones you love, right? Yeah, he does, though in the series the only thing we actually see is that trick with the sword. However, it was said in the YST bio or something that they extend farther than that, which is what most fans use. Yeah. The bad thing about the republishing of CoC is that you guys already know what the ultimate outcome is for the most part. We know Cye isn't crippled for life because he does all sorts of walking and stuff by the time he's with the Senshi. Sage is going to make it all better ^.~ After reading the last three sentences, I'll tell you to re-read the end of chapter seven very carefully.

Marlene: Thanks, Marlene! Though we all love naked Sage, there was a more serious reason for my choice of attire. Mostly it was symbolic- he's unclothed and more vulnerable to talk about him being a whore and what not. If he was wearing clothes, then the effect might've not been so bad. It was partially psychological on my part. He was naked in the story because he was just getting up and I've kinda decided that, considering the cultural aspects of where they are, this is probably typical bedtime attire. Cye was buck naked when he was attacked, too- the nakedness here isn't for fan service. RSL should be posted as well, or at least the first of the prologues.

Lady Apolla: Well, the next chapter wasn't finished yet- I can't post something that isn't done! And I'm a big Cye fan, too! Look at my name! Well, a lot of it wasn't Sage's fault, per se. Trulpa's a nut case, but I want to make her a master of psychological manipulation, which I'm developing. Are you talking about Kento? Well, you have to realize Kento was in a very difficult place. He was probably in a state of confusion and panic, and for some reason his instincts told him to not tell Cye. Considering the situation they're in, it's likely they're going to do things that, under other circumstances, would seem irrational or unwise. Aw. . .

~Dixxy