Queen's note: out of context: It's entirely the spiders' fault. No questions about it. xD

Garnets

Chapter Sixteen:

New Routines

Lily was happy as she walked the becoming familiar halls, pretty sure her exercising walk might be interrupted soon. It had been a good two hours since John had come back from… hell, again. And there was a distinct pattern she was learning he had. It took two to three hours for him to get himself and his armor cleaned up then he would seemingly remember that Lily was around and either start looking for her, or go straight down to try and pet the fuzzy guinea pig army.

John was distinctly gleeful in his way to head out, the few times she had seen him go, or just randomly as if he was in need to… destress? Vent? Lily was sure it was not her fault. More like something built up internally and The Slayer needed to just get everything out.

He just decimated whatever demonic horde or army was around as he stepped foot on earth or hell to destress.

Lily paused at a window, her arms comfortably tucked into the vest-sling. Her shoulders were healing considerably faster then they would have if not for the Argenta medicine. Watching the view that took up half of the window, of earth and the growing dark red lines.

She turned away, then stopped and came back, fully waking up out of the trance from walking. Slipping her arms out to rest her hands on the window, peering closer, or trying to at least.

"Vega?"

"Is something the matter miss Lily?" The AI responded promptly.

"Why is Australia dark?" Lilly paused, and then added, "I mean, like there's a dimming spot of that red there, but there's no… glyphs or signs visible from space that, uh, shows that hell took up residence."

There was just a long enough pause that spoke of how either Vega and Riggs were talking, or that Vega was checking for himself. "That…is a good question."

"Is it because of the spiders?" Lily wondered aloud, remembering seeing pictures of the things in Australia.

There was a snort behind her, making Lily jump. Spinning around to see John walking over, alarmingly siglent as he forgot to make noise. The smirk proved that he did not regret it, more finding the reaction amusing. He had some dark pair of sweatpants, the hem missing at the ankles to be more comfortable. With a towel over his shoulder, he was shirtless again after cleaning up. Old scarring exposed with a few new cuts in that strange, half healed state. As well as positivity radiating heat more than normal.

"Rude!" Lily pointed over, flustered at being startled, and then added, "Also, have you seen the spiders from Australia?"

"Mmm?" The demigod had to actually stop to think about it, arching an eyebrow as he thought. Then shook his head, because he really could not remember seeing Australia other than from outer space, let alone their spiders.

That was about when Lily realized there was a body laying on the ground in the hall behind the big guy, a good two of his paces. Her eyes widened, "What the hell- who is that?!"

"A new guest?" Vega tried to answer but he was not really sure himself.

John turned a little too casual as he considered the… bare body, looking back at Lily as he shrugged. The smirk he had was clear, if not a little smug, as he signed. Old friend.

"Why is he naked?" Lily had started to walk closer and then stopped to look away and cover her eyes.

"The Slayer just carried him in and out of Decon." Vega helpfully supplied. "I'm very sorry miss Lily I tried to get a pair of pants up in time before he came out."

Much farther down the hall, Lily could see one of the horseshoe crab cleaning drones hurrying along to them. Dragging one of John's spare shorts along with it. The big man backtracked and stooped to pick up the limp body over his shoulder, ignoring the angry chitter of the drone as he moved to finish his trip to medical.

"Vega?" Lily asked as she started to follow after a good minute, stopping to get the fabric from the angry drone. Listening to it as it seemed to need to vent in its way about having to run around so much with work to do. "Is it normal for him to kidnap people after all?"

"I was not aware of this… trait?" Vega sounded just as confused as the human. "I was not aware the Slayer was intending on bringing anyone else to the Fortress yet. I wrongly assumed he was interested in the Altan workings."

The what now?

Lily winced in sympathy, also deciding not to ask what an Altan was right now. She was walking again to catch up as she folded the boxer like shorts into a tight bundle. The drone stayed behind her but was still following as well. "Okay, second question, why does the new guy have only one arm?"

"The Slayer removed our guest's prosthetic arm in the decontamination shower." Vega explained, "It's currently soaking in a solution to finish cleaning."

"...I might be a little late in getting that relay cleaned out." Lily noted as she finally made it to the medical area. Hearing the fussing drones that lived in there… and slashing? "...did John just drown the person in the stasis pod thing as well?"

"Yes. Yes he did." Vega said, his tone going flat in a way that expressed far more emotion then Lily thought he could. "This seems to be a pattern starting."

Lily stopped in her tracks, thinking hard before asking aloud. "If I ever go to earth again, will he do that to me again?"

"..." The silence was extremely telling before Vega spoke, "I will give you about a 89% chance of that being a true statement."

Lily peeked into the medical area, took aim and threw the tightly folded bundle of dark red fabric. It was still unfair, as her aim was true this time, and she would have hit the big man's shoulder. Possibly on one of the three darker lines if he did not shift and catch the bundle.

"Make it safe!" Lily yelled in, turning as she started to get too much of a glimpse. Lily backed up and put her back to the wall, waiting as she was interested in who had come. Was brought?

There were some interesting sounds, a slash and then after a moment heavier steps. The demigod scanned the hall before spotting where Lily was, coming right over to crouch on his heels as she had slid to sit down. Holding the mask to her face until she could breathe again. A large hand was placed on her head as he glanced at what was exposed of her right arm, and how the bruising on it was just starting to fading. Still yellow and brown, but the smaller ones and edges of the bigger spots were fading.

It did not seem that long had passed to him.

Lily grasped his wrist with both hands, peering up at the eerie blue eyes, "So, just casually kidnapping people now?"

John flashed a grin, taking his hand back to sign slowly. Need help with Fort.

"Fort?" Lily squinted at the moving hands. Her question had the man pausing and trying again. "Oh, the fortress. Sorry. I've been working on a few of the systems."

"Hmm," John hummed, he was aware, but also knew she was learning as she went. Still need help. Old man is strong enough to help. And protect when I'm not here.

"What's his name?" Lily asked, not fully sure what to think of that statement.

The bigger man slowly signed the name, it was an Argenta word. Watching as Lily tilted her head, nudged her and signed it again. Waiting until she guessed correctly what he wanted and tried to make the sign. It took a few tries before she managed it on her own. Only then did John spell out the name in human sign. V-a-l-e-n.

Lily mouthed the letters, "Va-len?"

"Val-en," Vega said in a soft tone to correct.

John gave a snort, but seemed okay with the interruption. He shifted to get up, offering a hand, waiting until Lily put her left hand in his palm to help pull her up to her feet again. Nudging the human back into the medical area.

Lily was leery, but it proved to be safe… and the new person was standing up? He was between the stasis pods in the back and leaning on the nearest bed. His good eye unfocused as the man was putting a hand in his mouth, trying to trigger himself to throw up. John was suddenly past her and over there to help support.

The young woman stopped near but well out of the way, she could semi remember the feeling of being held and… draining? The feeling of her lungs clearing of the stasis pod fluid was something that would stick. As well as how offensive it was that Lily was able to breath better in the stasis pod then out.

John was supervising, well able to manhandle the bigger Valen almost as easily as Lily. He stood and pulled the Argenta man up onto a table to let him gasp and recover a moment. Valen seemed to be on the verge of passing back out again as the demigod looked between him and his right hand.

Flexing his hand, there was a faint spark of energy. Lily stopped as she was coming back over, looking startled at being able to see the visible energy starting to crawl over John's hand. It was alternating between orange and red, and as he placed his hand over Valen's chest it bled over and absorbed.

The subtle trembling in the other man stopped, he tensed and then relaxed. Looking up and, not quite able to focus, he spoke up in his own language. Lily was not sure what was said exactly, but given how John grinned and chuckled in his way, she was pretty sure it was a curse or insult at him.

The Slayer was weird like that.

"Do you have to antagonize who you kidnapped?" Lily asked, coming up to the bed on the right side.

Valen turned his head at her voice, as if startled at another voice, he was tensing again and then froze. Then just startled at seeing someone else around the Slayer, not the hand still on his own scared chest.

The Argenta man was almost as heavily scared as John, though paler scars, and only a few lines were darker than his own skin. He seemed more startled at seeing Lily then being somewhere new, as his right arm moved. Starting to reach out at her before his body went slack as he passed back out.

His expression was on the verge of… something that made Lily uncomfortable. Pretty sure Valen likely thought she was someone else in his semi conscious state. She still helped put his arms back on the table, grasping his hand in an attempt to be reassuring as it slowly flexed for a moment around her hands.

"Soo… friend of yours?" Lily asked, looking up at John, who nodded firmly back. "Weren't you in…hell?"

Another nod.

"So you pulled him out of hell."

Yes.

"He looks like something hit him like a freight train."

The Slayer paused, seeming to think about it before smirking as he signed out. Yes, ran into very big monster.

Lily squinted up at him, not fully sure if he was the big thing or was gleeful to fight a big thing. It was really hard to tell. She sighed, glanced down and freed her hand before going to get one of the towels off to the medical's storeroom.

The Demigod glanced down at the man he honestly did kidnap, dragged Valen out of his self isolation and self punishment. Glad he sorted out this trick of bleeding over some of his own energy into the old warrior, to stave off the withdrawals from hell's energies. Now that the hard part of getting Valen out of hell was over, he needed to 'convince' him to stay.

John blinked, turned and grunted as he remembered the prosthetic arm that needed to be cleaned. Not to mention hidden.

"Forget something?" Lily asked, pausing half way back.

Cleaning place. The bigger man signed as she walked out of Medical.

"I think he remembered to clean Valen's prosthetic." Vega attempted to translate, but was mostly guessing until there was a thumbs up.

"What am I supposed to do with the new person…?" Lily started, startled herself as she looked after the Slayer. She squinted at the half sign back over his shoulder. "'Be nice?' Be nice?! Says the person who kidnaps people-"

Worked out for you!

"I don't count, I was a willing participant in the 'kidnapping' to get away from the platform!" Lily yelled after him as he vanished from sight. Even was rude enough to stop making sounds. "Rude."

One of the medical bay drones buzzed over, holding something in its tiny grasping arms. Lily looked between it and Valen's form, his breathing was even at least, and she could see the few open cuts and puncture marks. Unlike with John, these had been bleeding again.

Lily sighed, setting the towel on the man's bed, reaching for the things that the Vega brought over viva the little hovering drones.Queen's note: out of context: It's entirely the spiders' fault. No questions about it. xD

Garnets

Chapter Sixteen:

New Routines

Lily was happy as she walked the becoming familiar halls, pretty sure her exercising walk might be interrupted soon. It had been a good two hours since John had come back from… hell, again. And there was a distinct pattern she was learning he had. It took two to three hours for him to get himself and his armor cleaned up then he would seemingly remember that Lily was around and either start looking for her, or go straight down to try and pet the fuzzy guinea pig army.

John was distinctly gleeful in his way to head out, the few times she had seen him go, or just randomly as if he was in need to… destress? Vent? Lily was sure it was not her fault. More like something built up internally and The Slayer needed to just get everything out.

He just decimated whatever demonic horde or army was around as he stepped foot on earth or hell to destress.

Lily paused at a window, her arms comfortably tucked into the vest-sling. Her shoulders were healing considerably faster then they would have if not for the Argenta medicine. Watching the view that took up half of the window, of earth and the growing dark red lines.

She turned away, then stopped and came back, fully waking up out of the trance from walking. Slipping her arms out to rest her hands on the window, peering closer, or trying to at least.

"Vega?"

"Is something the matter miss Lily?" The AI responded promptly.

"Why is Australia dark?" Lilly paused, and then added, "I mean, like there's a dimming spot of that red there, but there's no… glyphs or signs visible from space that, uh, shows that hell took up residence."

There was just a long enough pause that spoke of how either Vega and Riggs were talking, or that Vega was checking for himself. "That…is a good question."

"Is it because of the spiders?" Lily wondered aloud, remembering seeing pictures of the things in Australia.

There was a snort behind her, making Lily jump. Spinning around to see John walking over, alarmingly siglent as he forgot to make noise. The smirk proved that he did not regret it, more finding the reaction amusing. He had some dark pair of sweatpants, the hem missing at the ankles to be more comfortable. With a towel over his shoulder, he was shirtless again after cleaning up. Old scarring exposed with a few new cuts in that strange, half healed state. As well as positivity radiating heat more than normal.

"Rude!" Lily pointed over, flustered at being startled, and then added, "Also, have you seen the spiders from Australia?"

"Mmm?" The demigod had to actually stop to think about it, arching an eyebrow as he thought. Then shook his head, because he really could not remember seeing Australia other than outer space, let alone their spiders.

That was about when Lily realized there was a body laying on the ground in the hall behind the big guy, a good two of his paces. Her eyes widened, "What the hell- who is that?!"

"A new guest?" Vega tried to answer but he was not really sure himself.

John turned a little too casual as he considered the… bare body, looking back at Lily as he shrugged. The smirk he had was clear, if not a little smug, as he signed, Old friend.

"Why is he naked?" Lily had started to walk closer and then stopped to look away and cover her eyes.

"The Slayer just carried him in and out of Decon." Vega helpfully supplied. "I'm very sorry miss Lily I tried to get a pair of pants up in time before he came out."

Much farther down the hall, Lily could see one of the horseshoe crab cleaning drones hurrying along to them. Dragging one of John's spare shorts along with it. The big man backtracked and stooped to pick up the limp body over his shoulder, ignoring the angry chitter of the drone as he moved to finish his trip to medical.

"Vega?" Lily asked as she started to follow after a good minute, stopping to get the fabric from the angry drone. Listening to it as it seemed to need to vent in its way about having to run around so much with work to do. "Is it normal for him to kidnap people after all?"

"I was not aware of this… trait?" Vega sounded just as confused as the human. "I was not aware the Slayer was intending on bringing anyone else to the Fortress yet. I wrongly assumed he was interested in the Altan workings."

The what now?

Lily winced in sympathy, also deciding not to ask what an Altan was right now. She was walking again to catch up as she folded the boxer like shorts into a tight bundle. The drone stayed behind her but was still following as well. "Okay, second question, why does the new guy have only one arm?"

"The Slayer removed our guest's prosthetic arm in the decontamination shower." Vega explained, "It's currently soaking in a solution to finish cleaning."

"...I might be a little late in getting that relay cleaned out." Lily noted as she finally made it to the medical area. Hearing the fussing drones that lived in there… and slashing? "...did John just drown the person in the stasis pod thing as well?"

"Yes. Yes he did." Vega said, his tone going flat in a way that expressed far more emotion then Lily thought he could. "This seems to be a pattern starting."

Lily stopped in her tracks, thinking hard before asking aloud. "If I ever go to earth again, will he do that to me again?"

"..." The silence was extremely telling before Vega spoke, "I will give you about a 89% chance of that being a true statement."

Lily peeked into the medical area, took aim and threw the tightly folded bundle of dark red fabric. It was still unfair, as her aim was true this time, and she would have hit the big man's shoulder. Possibly on one of the three darker lines if he did not shift and catch the bundle.

"Make it safe!" Lily yelled in, turning as she started to get too much of a glimpse. Lily backed up and put her back to the wall, waiting as she was interested in who had come. Was brought?

There were some interesting sounds, a slash and then after a moment heavier steps. The demigod scanned the hall before spotting where Lily was, coming right over to crouch on his heels as she had slid to sit down. Holding the mask to her face until she could breathe again. A large hand was placed on her head as he glanced at what was exposed of her right arm, and how the bruising on it was just starting to fading. Still yellow and brown, but the smaller ones and edges of the bigger spots were fading.

It did not seem that long had passed to him.

Lily grasped his wrist with both hands, peering up at the eerie blue eyes, "So, just casually kidnapping people now?"

John flashed a grin, taking his hand back to sign slowly. Need help with Fort.

"Fort?" Lily squinted at the moving hands. Her question had the man pausing and trying again. "Oh, the fortress. Sorry. I've been working on a few of the systems."

"Hmm," John hummed, he was aware, but also knew she was learning as she went. Still need help. Old man is strong enough to help. And protect when I'm not here.

"What's his name?" Lily asked, not fully sure what to think of that statement.

The bigger man slowly signed the name, it was an Argenta word. Watching as Lily tilted her head, nudged her and signed it again. Waiting until she guessed correctly what he wanted and tried to make the sign. It took a few tries before she managed it on her own. Only then did John spell out the name in human sign. V-a-l-e-n.

Lily mouthed the letters, "Va-len?"

"Val-en," Vega said in a soft tone to correct.

John gave a snort, but seemed okay with the interruption. He shifted to get up, offering a hand, waiting until Lily put her left hand in his palm to help pull her up to her feet again. Nudging the human back into the medical area.

Lily was leery, but it proved to be safe… and the new person was standing up? He was between the stasis pods in the back and leaning on the nearest bed. His good eye unfocused as the man was putting a hand in his mouth, trying to trigger himself to throw up. John was suddenly past her and over there to help support.

The young woman stopped near but well out of the way, she could semi remember the feeling of being held and… draining? The feeling of her lungs clearing of the stasis pod fluid was something that would stick. As well as how offensive it was that Lily was able to breath better in the stasis pod then out.

John was supervising, well able to manhandle the bigger Valen almost as easily as Lily. He stood and pulled the Argenta man up onto a table to let him gasp and recover a moment. Valen seemed to be on the verge of passing back out again as the demigod looked between him and his right hand.

Flexing his hand, there was a faint spark of energy. Lily stopped as she was coming back over, looking startled at being able to see the visible energy starting to crawl over John's hand. It was alternating between orange and red, and as he placed his hand over Valen's chest it bled over and absorbed.

The subtle trembling in the other man stopped, he tensed and then relaxed. Looking up and, not quite able to focus, he spoke up in his own language. Lily was not sure what was said exactly, but given how John grinned and chuckled in his way, she was pretty sure it was a curse or insult at him.

The Slayer was weird like that.

"Do you have to antagonize who you kidnapped?" Lily asked, coming up to the bed on the right side.

Valen turned his head at her voice, as if startled at another voice, he was tensing again and then froze. Then just startled at seeing someone else around the Slayer, not the hand still on his own scared chest.

The Argenta man was almost as heavily scared as John, though paler scars, and only a few lines were darker than his own skin. He seemed more startled at seeing Lily then being somewhere new, as his right arm moved. Starting to reach out at her before his body went slack as he passed back out.

His expression was on the verge of… something that made Lily uncomfortable. Pretty sure Valen likely thought she was someone else in his semi conscious state. She still helped put his arms back on the table, grasping his hand in an attempt to be reassuring as it slowly flexed for a moment around her hands.

"Soo… friend of yours?" Lily asked, looking up at John, who nodded firmly back. "Weren't you in…hell?"

Another nod.

"So you pulled him out of hell."

Yes.

"He looks like something hit him like a freight train."

The Slayer paused, seeming to think about it before smirking as he signed out. Yes, ran into very big monster.

Lily squinted up at him, not fully sure if he was the big thing or was gleeful to fight a big thing. It was really hard to tell. She sighed, glanced down and freed her hand before going to get one of the towels off to the medical's storeroom.

The Demigod glanced down at the man he honestly did kidnap, dragged Valen out of his self isolation and self punishment. Glad he sorted out this trick of bleeding over some of his own energy into the old warrior, to stave off the withdrawals from hell's energies. Now that the hard part of getting Valen out of hell was over, he needed to 'convince' him to stay.

John blinked, turned and grunted as he remembered the prosthetic arm that needed to be cleaned. Not to mention hidden.

"Forget something?" Lily asked, pausing half way back.

Cleaning place. The bigger man signed as she walked out of Medical.

"I think he remembered to clean Valen's prosthetic." Vega attempted to translate, but was mostly guessing until there was a thumbs up.

"What am I supposed to do with the new person…?" Lily started, startled herself as she looked after the Slayer. She squinted at the half sign back over his shoulder. "'Be nice?' Be nice?! Says the person who kidnaps people-"

Worked out for you!

"I don't count, I was a willing participant in the 'kidnapping' to get away from the platform!" Lily yelled after him as he vanished from sight. Even was rude enough to stop making sounds. "Rude."

One of the medical bay drones buzzed over, holding something in its tiny grasping arms. Lily looked between it and Valen's form, his breathing was even at least, and she could see the few open cuts and puncture marks. Unlike with John, these had been bleeding again.

Lily sighed, setting the towel on the man's bed, reaching for the things that the Vega brought over viva the little hovering drones.