A/N: WEEEEEEE!!!!!
Disclaimer: Abel: Help us…. Me: Shut up!
Stella accepted everyone's graphs the next day. She frowned a bit when she saw them. She knew that they were all connected, but she didn't have anything to show the Cardinal. What is with these things? She felt as if she was getting closer and closer. Finally, she started to realize what was going on when…
"Stella! Hurry! There's a problem!" Father Leon's panicked voice cut through her thoughts.
She didn't question, only ran. He brought her out to the gates, where a lump of black cloth lay. Her heart dropped when she saw silver hair fanning out around the figure. She ran ahead of Leon, and put her hand on Abel's back, immediately trying to heal him.
"Abel, are you all right? What happened?" she whispered softly into his ear. He shuddered but did not, or could not, answer. Stella looked up at the frightened young father. "Leon, go get the infirmary sisters and get a stretcher. Find Tres!"
As Father Leon rushed off, Stella tried to ignore her dizziness. She could heal Titans and Terrans, yes, but Crusnicks apparently took a whole lot more out of her. She blinked and briefly she felt the pain he did. She opened her eyes and gasped. The pain, it was in her side.
"Father Nightroad, I need to move you." He groaned. "I know, just let me see your side." Abel shuddered again. Stella looked into his blue eyes. They were unfocused and half-lidded.
He was conscious, but just barely. Stella doubted very much that he could even hear her. She redoubled her efforts to heal him, and nearly fell over. She put her palm on the ground to steady herself. She took deep even breaths and willed Abel to do the same. Soon she heard Tres's heavy footfalls. Father Leon ran up behind the android with the head infirmary nun.
"Damage report, Father Abel Nightroad."
"Tres, he can't hear us, he's loosing consciousness. Help him up." Stella said quickly.
Tres stepped over and picked up Abel as if he weighed nothing and set him on the stretcher the nun had brought. Leon took one end and Tres took the other. They marched towards the infirmary. Stella stood and fell to the ground from the dizziness.
"Dear! Are you all right?" the nun came over and shook her shoulder.
Stella zoned out for a minute, then blinked. "Yes, Sister Eve. Um, the pain is on his left side."
Eve looked at her wordily. "Are you sure? Maybe you should come with me."
Stella nodded. "I'll be fine soon, but I want to make sure Father Nightroad is all right."
"AAAAHHHHH!" The sister's piercing scream sent a hammering noise through Stella's ears. Stella whirled around, following Eve's gaze.
A black shape hurtled towards her. Damn! Stella jumped into a fighting position, ignoring how she almost went down twice as fast. The black form sent her flying, but she punched it in the gut. It flew away before Stella's vision cleared. Blood dribbled from her mouth and a cut on her cheek.
Abel opened his eyes. A bright light sent a pain racing through his head. This time when he opened them, he was looking up at a blurred version of himself. He sat up. He was in the infirmary. Light was reflecting from the white ceiling.
"Abel, thank god you are awake." Abel looked into the smiling face of Father Leon.
"Er… yes. What's going on?"
Leon smiled wearily. "That's what we've been trying to get out of you for the past hour. You talk in your sleep, you know."
Abel closed his eyes, and a black image flew towards him. "I… was attacked. From behind. I think it was a Methuselah."
There was silence for a moment before they all heard Stella's quiet voice. "He probably saw you the day we were at the police station and recognized your ponytail. He was warning us."
Abel turned and was surprised to see that Stella was in a bed three feet away from him and she was paper-white, but her color was returning rapidly now that she was gaining consciousness. She shook her head.
"I should have known." She said with disgust. She turned her face towards them. "Are you all right Father Nightroad?"
Abel nodded. "Sister Eve's medicine is the best there is. What happened to you?"
Stella laughed ruefully. "I let my guard down. Sister Eve and I were attacked. I couldn't kill him though, I was still too weak." She smiled and looked up at her reflection in the ceiling. "This is more a blow to my pride than anything." She slipped out of bed and Abel saw a bandage wrapped around her middle. "See you guys around."
When she had left Abel looked around at his friends. "Why couldn't she kill it? I've seen her do amazing things myself. What happened?"
There was a moment of silence. Father Leon and Sister Eve were looking at the floor almost guiltily. Finally it was Father Tres who spoke up.
"Miss Stella Iceheart was unable to successfully defend herself because she was weakened considerably by restoring health to Father Abel Nightroad."
Abel swallowed. He felt terribly guilty. Yet another thing about Stella to confess on Sunday.
Stella draped herself across the couch, putting the papers on the coffee table. At least Mr. Onigoma had not been there tonight. She wouldn't fall asleep for a while yet, so she sat up and looked at the papers again. Acting on a sudden impulse she spread them out on the table, so she could look at them all at once. She studied them for a moment, and then gasped.
"But that's… impossible!"
A/N: Hey guys! Any guesses as to what is going on? Come on now… You're wrong! Oh, I'm supposed to save that till you guess. Review.