Hip waited at the edge of the village, gripping her AKS-74u with one hand and a walkie-talkie with the other. She tapped her fingers impatiently against the receiver of her carbine, looking at the radio. She put the rifle sling over her shoulder and scratched her chin, before laying her hand back onto the grip, trigger finger tapping above the trigger well. She was worried. Not about Bandits or some shit, but about Roza, she thought to herself.

She paused as the radio crackled to life, at first staticky, then came the call, "Hello, hello... We're almost home," which got the tension in the woman's body to disappear. She shook her head, relieved, then looked over toward the hill, down the road, as they crested it. She blinked, noting Ruby was eerily down, before running toward them, rifle held close. Prapor showed her to calm down, telling her in Ukrainian, "She killed a man by mistake..."

The Ukrainian Stalker paused and looked to Ruby, noting the dried blood on her uniform and her gun's bayonet. She stepped to her and knelt in front of her, asking her, "Are you okay, Roza?" like a mother worried for her child. Prapor thought to himself that it was a rather sweet sight, but understood the reasoning, what with Hip being the sole other female in a couple kilometers... Save for the Dragon. Ruby's sister, he recalled.

Ruby swallowed and gave a weak nod, replying, "I'll... Be alright..."

Hip nodded and said, "Let's get your armor cleaned... Prapor?"

"Aye, aye, I'll stay outside," He replied in English this time. He walked over with them, then sat himself down on the front step of the house, taking his gas mask off and sliding a cigarette between his lips. Whispers echoed from the other Loners, some of whom looked at him like he was a ghost. He scanned the entire area, then looked upon the campfire, where a pair of older Loners were. Fanatic among them gave the man a wave and a smile.

Ștefan replied with his own wave, though he didn't smile much, lighting his cig with a match and taking a long, hard drag of it. He took it from his mouth, flicked the ashes to the side, then slid it back between his lips, repeating this move a couple times as he settled himself down, his SVD hanging off his shoulder. He wondered to himself just how the young girl and her sister and friends had even gotten into the Zone in the first place. Ruby had apparently speculated that the Zone itself might've messed with them, bringing them here.

But to bring them here in the midst of one of the larger crises this place has faced? Strelok was missing, Monolith was regaining strength and there were rumors that the Wishgranter had opened for those bastard cultists again. Strelok had never told the world what he'd seen in the depths of the CNPP, just that what he did, he'd done for mankind's sake.

"It's fine to come in, Prapor," He heard Hip call out. The man stood to his feet, discarding the cigarette and walking inside. Entering the house, he walked to his usual seating spot and took his bag and rifle off, setting them aside and looking over at Ruby as the young girl sipped from her tea. Hip, meanwhile, stood over the fireplace and said, "She told me what happened. Good work..."

"Could've stopped her from winding up with blood on her bayonet if I'd moved faster, but I think it's fine..." The man sighed as Hip handed him some tea, bread and a piece of sausage of some kind, while Ruby still sipped on her drink. The man hummed and asked her, "You thinking about heading out of the Zone, Roza? We can bribe the soldiers for you, get you a truck out of here and send your sister and friends out when we find them..."

"No," Ruby replied, surprisingly straightforward. She blinked and looked at the two people that she'd just surprised with that response, before stating warily, "Something's telling me I should stick with the Zone... For now, at least..." And it was obvious, however, that Ruby was not talking about a gut instinct. Her silver eyes seemed to flash for a moment, a thin red 'film' of some kind glowed across her body.

Prapor looked to a surprised Hip, waving her to him. She walked up and squatted beside him, allowing him to lean toward her and whisper, "This the glow Fanatic was talking about...?" to which the woman nodded. He blinked and asked, "Ruby... I hate to be the interrogator, since it seems my friends aren't sure what to make of you, but what the hell is that glow? Radiation?"

Ruby paused and looked at herself, then snorted and scratched her cheek, murmuring, "Guess if it wouldn't have been Fanatic, one of you two might've commented on it..." before looking at the half-finished cup of tea. She seemed to get really philosophical as she asked, "Do you guys know the whole concept of a soul?" which seemed to surprise both of them.

"... The thing that goes to either heaven or hell after your body dies, depending on how good you were?" Hip blinked.

Ruby hummed, thinking that that was probably part of the local religion, then chuckled sadly and commented, "Something like that... Well, what I have is called an Aura..." which caused the two to stop yet again, looking confusedly to the young woman. She explained, "An Aura's a manifestation of one's Soul, activated and acting like a sort of Force Field, a protection against external damage and something to help with healing small wounds."

"Huh," Both of them let out, surprise still evident on their faces...

Ștefan commented, "So... Basically, if you get shot, it protects you from bullets...?" which got a nod of the head from Ruby. He spoke, "I'm assuming it's finite, or at least temporarily dies out after too much damage, though, y'know, pulling back into your soul?" And it was Ruby's turn to be surprised. Prapor had always been intuitive, so Hip thought as she looked between the two of them.

Ruby smiled softly and nodded, "Yep... It recharges over time, though we gotta keep our calorie intake topped up for it to properly... Y'know... Do its thing," before stopping as she remembered, "Oh, yeah, right. It also grants us a Semblance," only to note their confusion reappear. She sighed and said, "Long story short? Personal anomaly, I guess I can call it. A superpower, really. In my case? I can move really fast... while somehow dropping rose petals... Heh..."

"Huh," The two let out again, with Hip snorting, "That's actually pretty cool. Maybe you can awaken our Auras too, somehow."

"I can try..." Ruby said warily, though lookin at the faint glow on her hand as she focused her Aura on it. She sighed and stood up as Hip seemed genuinely excited at the concept of being her own kind of anomaly. She set her tea cup down on the windowsill, then approached Hip and set a hand on her chest plate, closing her own eyes. The young Rose started murmuring something as her hand glowed...

Hip's Geiger counter started clicking. At first it was a slow, but worrying. It only intensified as Ruby's focus seemed to harden, with Hip starting, "Uh, Roza? Ruby..." as she started to feel the effects. She coughed, then pushed Ruby's hand aside, severing the connection and staggering back, a bit dizzy. Prapor caught her before she fell over, with her woozily saying, "Okay, maybe bad idea... I think your Aura..."

"... Absorbed the radiation..." Ruby whispered, looking at the glow on her hand. She blinked, stunned, then jumped and yelped, "Oh, gosh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-!" as she walked to help Hip. To her credit, the blonde toughed it out and took a long, hearty swig of some Nemiroff vodka she had in a cabinet. Coughing, the young woman gently sat herself down and shook her head, while an apologetic Ruby looked at her with fearful eyes.

"She'll be fine," Ștefan stated after giving Hip a once-over, "... Guess you can keep your Aura for now, eh...?"

"Y-Yeah..." She winced, rubbing her hands together... "Hip, I'm sorry..."

"It's fine, kiddo..." The woman shook her head and stood to her feet, then stretched and said, "It's already passing. Dose must've been a little less than would be needed to cause long-term issues in the Zone..." before turning back toward the little Red. Turning to Prapor, she told him, "We're gonna need to help her find her sister... Since you're going deeper into the Zone, maybe you can provide some help to her."

"I'm going deep enough to meet the rumored Monolith, Hip," He shot back, "I'm not certain it's a good idea... She can't properly defend herself against Bandits."

She nodded, "Well, with her Aura, Ruby might be able to keep up with you, if nothing else," And she shrugged next, "If she wants to tag along, find her sister and her friends... It's the best we got..." before Ruby cleared her throat. She looked to them, wary, but her gaze spoke a thousand words. Ștefan sighed and nodded, then hefted his SVD onto his shoulder, put on his mask and looked to Hip.

"I'll hold down the fort," Hip gave him a smile, "Hey, maybe you'll run into your girl, too..."

He helped Ruby to her feet and the pair bid goodbye to Hip, before they stepped out and started walking toward the same area they'd come from. Ruby looked up at Prapor and asked, "... Girl?" which surprised him. The man nodded as dark clouds gathered overhead. He gave Ruby a short, sideways chop of his hand, as if telling her they'd talk about it later.

Arriving at the area that Prapor had cleared, which was now occupied by Loners, the pair sat themselves down inside one of the buildings and lit a barrel fire where they could warm themselves. Prapor himself spoke, "... I have an old friend that went missing here. A childhood friend, Katerina. We used to be quite close, the two of us, both being inhabitants of the south-western region of Ukraine in the Carpathians."

"Okay," Ruby blinked, "Pretend I don't know what any of that is...? I mean, aside from Ukraine, the country we're in... I think..."

"Correct. As for the rest? The Carpathians are a mountain range that stretches for a good chunk of this part of the continent," He told her, taking his mask off and pulling out a pair of military-grade rations. He offered one of the green bags with the Ukrainian Army's coat of arms to Ruby and told her quickly, "Has breakfast, lunch and dinner options. Buckwheat and beef kasha's very good. Reminds me a lot of home..."

"Thanks," She nodded awkwardly, then hummed and popped the item open as the pit-patter of rain echoed around them. As she took out the breakfast option, she looked to Prapor and told him, "I hope we find her..." as she opened the breakfast packet t cook. She seemed to know what she was doing, the man thought as he saw her pull out the heating element and bag for the Kasha.

He replied kindly, "I hope we find your friends and sister, too, Roza," before heating his own kasha up. The two watched as the rainstorm outside continued beating down on the Zone like a bombardment. Somewhere, out there, lay four people very important to the two newfound partners. Both thought that, perhaps, the trip would not be so bad on either of them...

There was much still ahead of them...