Author's Note: Grayson and most of Team SGGE are out for the count, as is LIWI, but at least they managed to bring down one of the members of The Pantheon.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or its associated characters. The characters in this writing so far are mostly original characters, but I make no claim over the existing characters.

Chapter 23

Fallout

Grayson's Perspective

Captain Stone looked hesitant to leave me alone, but I gave her my best reassuring smile and a weak thumbs up as she propped me up against the wall of a building opposite the ruined Dust Works headquarters. Realistically I was lying my ass off by trying to tell her I would be alright. I had definitely broken my left arm and my right leg. Several of my ribs and at least one or two disks in my spine were also probably cracked, and I was having some difficulty breathing.

Those were only the injuries I had sustained in the brief fight and from impacting the ground. I still had two bullets lodged within me that were causing my leg and shoulder to scream out in pain every time I moved. But at this point there wasn't anything she could do for me that couldn't wait a few minutes for her to go capture Helios. So I sat, trying not to breathe too hard and struggling to maintain my focus on the street around me while Stone charged off into the fading light.

"LIWI?" I asked for what felt like the hundredth time. Just as the previous times I received no response. "I don't know if you can hear me or not buddy." I spoke, trying to keep myself awake if nothing else. "But I really appreciate everything you've done for me lately. And if I get killed before you wake back up then I just want you to know that I don't blame you for leaving me alone. I shouldn't have pushed you so hard."

Gunshots erupted from the far side of the Dust Works building, and I paused for a moment to try and gauge what was happening. After only a few seconds the gunshots ceased, and didn't resume. That told me that either Captain Stone or Gideon had gone down, and from what I knew of the captain she wouldn't have gone down easily. A minute later she emerged from behind the building, dragging the limp form of Gideon behind her by his armor's collar. Upon closer inspection I saw blood leaking from an impact on his head. Captain Stone dragged him over, dropping him next to me against the wall.

"Can you get him out of that armor?" She asked, "He has all sorts of crap in there that I don't want him using. I'm going to look for Eugene and Harriet." Her voice caught slightly when she mentioned Lieutenant Rivers, so I just nodded and set to work with my functional right arm instead of trying to dissuade her from looking for them. She needed hope, and I didn't want to take that away from her. She charged away, bringing out a flashlight to search through the ruins of the Dust Works building.

I turned to Gideon's unconscious form, reaching out with my good arm and dragging him slightly closer to me by the collar of his armor. It was a different design than mine, but looked much more sophisticated. It lacked the rescue handle that mine had, though I could see where it had been cut off and the stubs ground down. Gideon had probably thought it more likely that the handle would get caught on something than that he would need to be carried away by it.

Reaching into my medical kit on my leg I brought out the heavy tranquilizers that I carried for huntsmen targets and administered a shot to his exposed neck to prevent him from regaining consciousness while I worked. It was awkward to try and fiddle with the needle's cap with only one hand, but I made it work. After checking his pulse to ensure it remained slow and steady I set to work figuring out how to get him out of the armor.

I pulled his left wrist up to where I could see it, and examined the small control panel that was built into the armor there. The design was similar to mine, though it was based on some sort of reinforced touch screen rather than the simpler buttons and recessed readout that mine used. I engaged the screen and fiddled around with it until I found the controls for entering and exiting the suit. The operating system used English, which told me that one of the original group from Earth had programmed it, or at least had a hand in its development.

Curious what other secrets the armor could be hiding, I focused on the armor and willed the arcane sight Gary had enchanted into my body to activate. Runes littered the armor, most were focused on defense, but a number had interesting abilities designed to make it easier to stay mobile while wearing the heavy suit. The hard light shield projector on the left forearm had also been enchanted, the runes were focused around elemental and physical defense. It looked like it could take a serious beating before giving out, even if it was targeted directly with magic. I found a feather fall enchantment similar to mine on the back of the armor, which was likely his intended method of escaping from the Dust Works building once the fight started turning against him.

Messing with the wrist panel some more revealed a small laser projector that popped out of the right wrist. It looked to be much smaller than the one I had recovered from our fight with Logan, and appeared to have burned out. It was possible that it was intended as a one time use emergency weapon, or Gary simply hadn't had enough material on hand while designing it to install a proper version of the laser weapon.

Either way, I was curious to see what I could discover with more time to examine the armor, especially with my full set of tools and a clear head. I retrieved a marker from my field bag and wrote 'Deliver to Team SGGE -Sgt Phoenix' on the chest plate, then activated the 'exit armor' button on the wrist panel. The back of the armor seemed to split in two, opening up to allow Gideon's unconscious form to gently slump onto the hard asphalt. I was continually impressed by the sophistication of the armor's design. When compared to my own it was like trying to compare the Model Two and Model Three armors.

Mine was simpler and likely easier to maintain, but this was operating on a whole other level. I unlatched the aura cuffs from the armor and placed them onto his actual wrists, making sure to seal them tighter to account for the size difference. The whole process had only taken a few minutes, so I settled in to wait for Captain Stone's return.

-/-

I jolted awake at a sudden noise, unsure of when I had fallen asleep. The sun had now fully set, but there was still no sign of anyone else from Team SGGE, or of Harriet Bree.

Lieutenants Sky and Cloud were supposed to return directly after dropping off Sergeant Green, though with the state of the air defenses nearby I couldn't be sure they would be able to land anywhere near us. As time passed I began to feel cold despite my armor, so I engaged the heating system. It had been designed to keep soldiers warm during an Atlesian blizzard, so it could easily handle the chill air in Argus. Despite the warmth emanating from my armor's heaters however, I still felt coldness seeping into my limbs.

I stirred slightly as I realized that wasn't a good indicator of my health. My fuzzy brain remembered that a person reporting coldness after being injured could be either in shock or experiencing blood loss. If it was blood loss I was in a lot more serious trouble than I realized. With my right hand I reached into my kit bag and found the flare gun within it. I couldn't guarantee that help would find me first if I fired a rescue flare, but I needed to take the risk rather than bleed out here waiting for someone to maybe find me.

I loaded the flare gun with a red flare, then aimed and fired it skyward, indicating that I had injured personnel and needed evacuation. I watched as the blindingly bright crimson flare soared into the night sky, hanging in the dark abyss above me for a long minute as the small parachute built into it kept it aloft. I sat and waited several minutes for the response force to arrive, puzzling at what friendly units could be in the area as the flare burned itself out. The infantry battalions we had been pushing into Argus with might be able to send out a scouting party to investigate, but the majority of their forces would be hunkered down to wait out the night. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the door to the building I was propped against, barely remaining on its hinges, swing open quietly.

No, I realized, not quietly, silently. I turned my head, doing my best to ignore the spike of pain in my spine, and saw Lieutenant Rivers stagger out of the building. He looked beat up worse than I was, with his left arm in a makeshift sling crafted from his uniform top and burns covering his entire body. He limped towards me, eyes bloodshot, and every inch of exposed skin covered in what looked to be very nearly third degree burns that had to be incredibly painful. He had a makeshift bandage wrapped around his forehead that I could see blood slowly oozing around as it coagulated.

Rivers collapsed in a heap a few feet away, pulling himself up to sit against the wall just far enough to keep me outside of his cone of silence. Normally in this kind of situation people might seek closeness for a sense of safety, but the lieutenant knew that blocking my hearing would be detrimental to our survival, and he was well disciplined. He signed at me, slowly due to needing to use only one hand.

"Where is Evelynn?"

I couldn't sign properly without aggravating my injuries, so I just spoke, relying on him to read my lips.

"She's searching for you and Specialist Bree," I replied. He shook his head sadly.

"She won't find her," he signed back. "She didn't make it out of his meltdown."

I looked towards where Gideon lay unconscious, the only injury on him a single crack to the skull. It didn't feel fair to me, that so many people had been hurt or killed just trying to bring him down, and he didn't even look like he cared.

"What happened?" I asked. Rivers looked distant, staring off into the darkness down the street for a moment before replying.

"After you two went out the window, Gideon cracked his own aura, activating his semblance. Bree grabbed me and threw me clear, but she didn't have enough time to get herself out. I was on the edge of his radius when he cooked off, and she was still clearing the window. My aura shattered almost immediately, but it kept me safe long enough for me to clear his area of effect. I landed poorly on the roof, and cracked my head. I didn't even wake up until your flare went up."

My right hand balled into a fist, but I set it into my lap, reminding myself that I used to know Gideon, used to be good friends if Gary's memories were to be believed. Impressions of the past flashed through me as I tried to recall the blast of thoughts and emotions that I had been struck with on the roof of the hospital in Atlas. When Gary had first come to remnant he had been constantly paranoid, separated from everyone he knew and thrown directly into the face of danger. But then Cole had found him, and together they had found the others.

I remembered how relieved Gary felt when they found Gideon, glad to have another person he could trust in a strange world. When they had found Gideon he had been trying to stuff a bobcat into a cardboard box, claiming that he could tame it. I almost smiled when remembering how intensely glad Gary had been to have the positive distraction. It had helped keep him from being crushed by the weight of responsibility that Cole had dropped on him when they had been reunited.

Gary had learned from Cole that they had been chosen, for whatever reason, as the people who needed to help save the world, and that idea had been eating away at him for days before they found Gideon. But as soon as Gideon came back into the group it was like his relentless positivity was infectious. He always had the whole team smiling, doing the most absurd things with a completely straight face and presenting his results as if it were the most logical thing in the world. I found it difficult to reconcile those memories of a cheerful friend with the killer now sleeping fitfully beside me.

I slowly rolled my head back to face Lieutenant Rivers.

"How's the head injury?" I asked quietly. He shrugged with his good arm, and signed back.

"I've had worse, I'm actually not feeling too much pain anywhere right now."

I frowned.

"What about the burns?" Rivers looked down at the burnt and charred skin on his arms, then waggled a hand to indicate the pain wasn't bad. Information from long hours spent studying field medicine rose unbidden into the forefront of my mind.

"A lack of pain means you likely have third degree burns" I recited. "Try to keep them clean and make sure you stay warm, you'll be susceptible to hypothermia until your skin heals properly." Rivers pointed down at my waist and signed

"Speaking of healing, can LIWI help?" I shook my head slightly, remembering too late that it hurt to move my spine.

"No," I told him, "He's gone completely silent, hopefully he recovers by himself, but I can't be sure what will actually happen."

Rivers looked about to reply when Captain Stone came around a corner down the street, still searching for him and Captain Bree. As she saw Rivers her eyes lit up and she dashed over to us, clearing the hundred or so yards in a few seconds. The lieutenant stood up awkwardly as she ran, likely only able to stay on his feet because of the physical enhancements his aura provided him.

"Eugene!" Captain Stone shouted, pulling him into a hug, carefully to avoid further injuring his arm. The two operatives embraced for a long moment, then released each other, each of them trying to put their mask of professionalism back on.

"Harriet is dead." Lieutenant Rivers signed to her, and I saw her crestfallen expression for a moment before she managed to hide it from us. She looked around, realizing she was the only one in any state to move a long distance in a hurry. I couldn't walk, Gideon was unconscious, and Rivers definitely shouldn't be standing, but was anyway.

"Alright" she declared shakily as she exited River's cone of silence, "New plan."

She waved a hand and a mix of concrete and asphalt chunks swirled towards her, gathered from the street around us. The collection grew, with a large relatively flat piece of concrete rising to the top riding a wave of smaller pieces. Captain Stone reached down and lifted me by the rescue handle on my armor, depositing me on the piece of concrete, then lifted Gideon up into a fireman's carry on her shoulders. She stabilized the unconscious huntsman with her right hand, then offered her left to Lieutenant Rivers.

"Wait!" I called out before his cone of silence enveloped her. "We need his armor, it's got a ton of useful tech I can reverse engineer!" Stone shook her head once, "Forget it" she said, "I'll send someone to pick it up, but we need to leave now." Rivers took her hand, and we set off, the two of them walking ahead of me as I lay atop the chunk of concrete while it meandered its way down the street after them.

-/-

I sat in one of the Bullhead's jump seats as Lieutenants Sky and Cloud prepared for another dangerous liftoff from the ruins of what used to be the WoF's fortified position. Master Sergeant File came jogging up the open backramp of the aircraft carrying Gideon's armor by the legs. Another soldier had the armor by the arms, and together they hauled it up into the cabin of the aircraft, strapping it down in the cargo section. I gave them a weak thumbs up with my unbroken arm and File returned it, then they set off back into the darkness to help the Atlesian Army dig in for the night.

I felt bad about leaving them behind, but without the ability to stand under my own power I wasn't much use. Instead I had asked Captain Stone to let a few of the more injured troopers catch a ride with us back to the main Argus base where Sergeant Green was being treated. It wasn't hard to convince her, I just had to point out the empty seats and she immediately jumped at the opportunity to help the soldiers. The Bullhead had filled up rapidly, and had now become standing room only for any walking wounded. Rivers tried to stand himself, but everyone in the aircraft had taken one look at his burns and collectively urged him back into his seat.

Lieutenant Sky entered through one of the side doors, pressing through the crowd of wounded to get back to the cockpit. The pilot had been checking minor damage to the right engine cowling sustained on their return flight, but was apparently satisfied that the aircraft was still flight capable.

The engines spooled up and we lifted off. The flight was rougher than many of the wounded would have liked, but the hard acceleration was necessary to minimize the time we spent exposed to enemy fire. Fortunately, with Gideon's capture, many of the enemy units had pulled back to regroup, meaning they were not well positioned to intercept our flight path.

I locked the servos of my armor to help support my broken bones against the sudden G-forces as we climbed and banked towards the northern part of the city where the military base was preparing their medical teams to receive us. We blasted over the city at high speed, wind whistling through a few small bullet holes in the cabin that hadn't been there when I loaded Sergeant Green and the previous wave of wounded aboard the aircraft. After only a few minutes I felt the pilots decelerating the Bullhead as they transitioned to vertical flight for our landing. Multiple weeks worth of excruciatingly slow territory gains were covered in a handful of minutes, a depressing indicator of how hard both sides were fighting for control of Argus.

Captain Stone took charge of the unloading process, directing the wounded off the aircraft and towards triage stations as the medical staff ran towards the aircraft while the engines were still spooling down. Rivers and I were both placed onto gurneys and rolled to the actual base hospital with several of the more severely wounded soldiers. Once we stopped I reached down to the controls on my left wrist and activated the emergency ejection option of my armor, allowing it to fall off of me without going through the usual complicated process of removing the armor.

The micro servos activated properly everywhere except the damaged left leg, and the armor segments unlocked from each other to drop off the gurney and fall to the ground as the doctors began working to treat us. This time I took LIWI off preemptively and held him tightly in my right hand as the doctors worked, not wanting to risk him being taken from me again.

At Captain Stone's insistence a team of nurses carted Lieutenant Rivers off to the burn ward immediately, bumping him up to the top of the list of critical casualties once they realized how severe his condition actually was. I was at no immediate risk of dying, so I was content to remain low priority as staff bustled around the hospital, working overtime to treat the sudden influx of wounded. I busied myself by convincing a less wounded soldier to dig my magical tools out from where my gear bag lay discarded on the floor, and setting to work diagnosing LIWI.

I had to move slowly, and the soldier, Second Lieutenant Marang, had to help by holding LIWI steady for me as I held the tools in my right hand. Once I had LIWI's front panel off I activated my arcane sight to study his runes and try to get a grasp on what was keeping him from recovering. He had been offline for several hours at this point, which was normally long enough for him to purge the excess magical energy from his system and be fully operational. Instead he was still unresponsive, and slightly warm to the touch.

I poked at the disk of ancient magical material that made up his core, noting that the silver I had grafted into the bullet hole was significantly warmer than the rest of the material. Silver was the most magically conductive material I had access to without being able to send an expedition into the Grimm Lands to recover more ancient metal, but clearly it wasn't good enough.

I set him aside for the time being as a nurse came to replace the wound sealing spray on my right shoulder with a proper dressing and to set my left arm in a sling. Fortunately the break was clean and hadn't pierced the skin, so I would have a reasonably fast recovery time even if LIWI wasn't able to heal me. I pondered my options for repairing him as the medical staff continued working, splinting and elevating my legs and discussing options for imaging my spine. Despite the severity of my injuries the pain I felt was fading now that I had something productive to do.

I motioned to Lieutenant Marang and asked him to pass me the back plating of my armor, where I had stored the feather fall spell. I opened up the armor and found where the runic components were sitting in a well protected box spliced into the spine of the armor. I had a theory that LIWI needed a sort of reverse kick start, having likely absorbed so much energy that the silver components were unable to properly regulate the flow of magic, and he had been forced to effectively shut himself down to protect himself. Marang held the armor up for me curiously as I set LIWI inside the open shell, then used one of the runic carving tools to carve a transference rune into another tool. Once completed, I used the newly conductive tool to connect LIWI's silver component to the feather fall spell.

The tool became painfully hot in a split second, and I yelped as I dropped it reflexively. The tool clattered to the ground, glowing with heat from the overflow of magic that had been forced through it. At the same time, the feather fall spell in my armor popped loudly as one of the critical components fractured and split open as it tried to safely redirect the excess energy in LIWI back into the ether. Cautiously I touched a hand to LIWI.

Wow! I was worried I wouldn't be able to-wait, where the heck are we?

"LIWI!" I exclaimed, remembering too late that I was surrounded by people who had no clue who LIWI was. Lieutenant Marang gave me a questioning look, so I awkwardly tried to save face. "Uh, it's an expression," I lied lamely, ignoring the judgmental look he gave me. "Find Captain Stone" I told him, deflecting his curiosity by giving him a task. "Tell her my equipment is back online and I'm going to be running diagnostics, she'll know what it means."

While the Lieutenant outranked me and didn't have to do what I asked him to, he evidently respected Team SGGE enough to acquiesce without argument. As he departed I reached back down, touching LIWI again and trying to get an idea of his internal mechanism's health.

"We're in a hospital, back at the Argus military base" I whispered to him, "You were offline for almost five hours after I made you heal Jenkins. I'm so sorry, I didn't realize how much you were straining yourself to keep up." I felt tears threatening to well up around the corners of my eyes as relief washed over me. I was overjoyed to have LIWI back, but the guilt still haunted deep in the back of my mind.

Wow! Three hours? I don't think I've ever been asleep before, I didn't even notice anything. Is that what it's like for you when you sleep?

He still managed to be relentlessly optimistic. Even in the face of his closest equivalent to death he was unfazed, more curious about the world than concerned about his safety.

"Kind of?" I whispered back, ignoring the looks I was starting to receive from one of the nurses who had noticed me talking to myself. "Normally I'm at least aware of the start and end of my sleep though, even if I'm not really conscious for the actual sleeping part."

Cool!

His tone was excited, and I couldn't help but smile slightly at his infectious attitude.

Hey if you're in the hospital does that mean you got hurt? I can't really tell from over on the table here, I'm still trying to get my senses back online, it's sort of like when I need to blink as a human, but a lot longer.

"Uh" I replied, not wanting to worry him with my injuries when he was still working to recover himself. "I'll be okay, nothing you can't fix when you're back to one hundred percent."

Okay. He replied cheerfully. Well tell me what I missed I guess, I think I'll be ready to help in about a little bit at this rate. There's a lot of energy swirling around in here, but I can get it pushed out now.

I filled him in on our tale of adventure, downplaying some of the more dangerous parts like dropping into the enemy tunnel or trying to skydive into an open window. Honestly I was too embarrassed to admit it, but I had been aiming for the roof and had accidentally undershot to wind up crashing directly into Gideon. LIWI 'ooh'd and 'aah'd appropriately as I described how Captain Stone had saved me from falling to my death, then how she had gone back in by herself to subdue a still dangerous Gideon.

She must be so excited! LIWI commented, She did a great job!

"Well, excited would probably be a stretch." I told him. "Specialist Bree was killed when Gideon cooked off. I think the captain blames either me for getting involved or herself for not doing better, I'm not sure which. I'm also not sure which would be worse."

Oh no… He said quietly, I really liked Harriet.

"Yeah," I replied awkwardly, not sure how to discuss death with him. I hadn't had much time to process it myself, I had been too busy trying to help keep people alive and figure out how to help LIWI to really think about the day's events. I hadn't been conscious for Harriet's death, but the image of the young armored soldier who had died fighting alongside me in the tunnels swam through my mind, occasionally floating to the top at unexpected moments.

-/-

I felt a small tingle of magical energy in my palm, where I held LIWI, as I thought about the troops that had been injured or killed during the battle. Jenkins' injury in particular stood out to me as something that was objectively my fault. I had taken a group of normal troops into a dangerous situation, without the power to keep them safe. Not only had I nearly gotten Jenkins killed, I had forced LIWI to give too much of himself to make up for my mistakes. The tingling grew more intense as I was lost in thought, and I hardly noticed as my fractured bones slowly began to mend.

I squeezed LIWI tightly in my grip, some part of my subconscious fearing that even now he could be taken from me, or worse, further injured. The battle in the tunnels flashed through my mind, images replaying again and again. I watched the armored soldier fall a dozen times, each time wondering if I could have saved him if I had done something different. If I hadn't pushed LIWI so hard then maybe he could have cast a spell to protect him, or used healing to keep him from bleeding out. If I had been faster while fighting then maybe I could have attacked the troops that were hiding on the other side to attack us, maybe if I was paying more attention I would have been able to stop us from dropping in there entirely.

Hey,

LIWI tried to speak to me, and I was dimly aware that he had been trying to tell me something.

I wasn't listening, instead my mind leaped to Sergeant Green being shot. I was wearing armor, he wasn't. I should have taken that shot for him, I should have noticed Gideon setting up before he ever had a chance. Now Green was still in critical condition as far as I knew. The memory of the fear I felt for him led into the different type of fear I felt while diving from the Bullhead to attack Gideon.

I felt a sense of helplessness watching Green bleed into the dirt, unable to make him whole again, but I felt a sense of dread while attacking Gideon, dread that I wouldn't be good enough to help. I worried that I would only be in the way in a fight, and I had been right. I remembered the shock of the impact as I collided with him, taking him to the floor and trying desperately to stay on top of him as he fought back. He had so easily been able to take a superior position in the grapple, snapping my left arm at the joint and pinning my weakened leg in a matter of seconds. Evelynn had been able to handle him by herself when tracking him down, but I couldn't even survive a ten second grapple with him without LIWI or one of the members of Team SGGE to save me.

DAD!

LIWI practically shouted into my mind, and I jumped in response. The nurse trying to get my attention slipped backwards and I saw a flash of a metal weapon in their hand. My left arm shot out, grabbing their wrist and forcing them backwards as my right hand dropped LIWI into my lap, then extended to catch my sword as I sucked in a breath to shout its command phrase.

Dad, stop!

LIWI shouted again, and I froze, still squeezing the nurse's wrist but not summoning my weapon. On a second look I realized the weapon in the nurse's hand was just a small needle, connected to a long tube. After another moment I understood what had happened, the nurse had been trying to insert an IV, but I wasn't responding to him or LIWI. I breathed in and out heavily, realizing that my heart rate was spiking, a fact helpfully broadcast to the attending nurse by the monitor's insistent and fast paced beeping. I released his wrist from the death grip I had on it, and he rubbed at it where the bones had been squeezed together painfully.

"Sorry" I apologized, taking a deep shuddering breath as I tried to calm myself.

"It's okay," he said, "You're among friends here, Sergeant, you can relax." I nodded, not feeling relaxed, but forcing myself to remain calm.

The panic had snuck up on me out of nowhere, I had been calm the entire trip back, but the second I stopped working it was like my mind had betrayed me. The nurse inserted the IV into my right arm, and began a drip of what looked like plasma. I caught his attention, waving him down as he tried to step away.

"I haven't lost very much blood, why am I being given plasma?" He shrugged and pointed to the monitor.

"Your stats show your blood pressure and oxygen levels are low, so you might have some internal bleeding, we'll get you checked out as soon as we can. That blood is definitely going somewhere." He stepped away, and I realized for the first time that my left arm didn't hurt, which it absolutely should have, considering I just used it to attack him. The pain in my spine and legs was also rapidly diminishing.

"LIWI?" I asked quietly, "Are you back?"

I am, I've been healing you for several minutes now, I have to keep the flow of magic pretty low right now but once I got my sight back I saw how badly you were hurt, and I didn't want to wait.

Time must have gotten away from me while I was thinking, but now that LIWI was back I had something to do again. A goal, an objective of some kind, was a welcome gift to distract me from my own thoughts.

I fully removed the sling from my left arm, flexing it to be sure that it was healed, then stood up. The plasma drip was helping to make up for the energy being pulled from my body to heal me, so I decided to detach the pouch from its stand and take it with me. I reattached LIWI's front panel, then clipped him around my waist and set off to find and heal Sergeant Green and Lieutenant Rivers. I stumbled on my first step, and I felt LIWI rushing to enhance my strength.

"Wait" I told him under my breath, "I'll be fine, save it for helping Green and Rivers." Reluctantly, he eased off the magic, letting the excess dissipate while I searched for them.

-/-

I found Sergeant Green first, he had been released from emergency surgery, but his recovery was uncertain. An attendant filled me in as I walked into his room, the shot had gone through cleanly just above his hip bone, but the cavitation caused by the high caliber bullet had caused significant damage to his internal organs. He had only survived thanks to his aura enhanced physiology and the immediate medical attention I and the other medics had given him. At best he would likely be bedridden for weeks, at worst he might never fully recover, but at least his survival was certain.

I stopped at his bed, placing a palm gently above his chest and feeling LIWI slowly eke out healing magic. Color returned to Green's pale cheeks as the magic took hold, and after several minutes I saw that the stitches the doctor's had placed were pushing themselves out of the skin as the body's natural healing forced the foreign objects out. Satisfied that he would be up and mobile as soon as he awoke, I set off to find Rivers, leaving the awed attendant behind to monitor him.

I was stopped at the entrance to the burn ward by a nurse.

"I'm sorry sir," she said patiently, "But I can't allow anyone in who isn't strictly necessary, we need to keep the environment sterile." I looked around for a sterilization station, spotting it over in the corner of the room.

"Understood" I told her, setting off towards the station, "I'll only be a minute." She looked frustrated.

"Sir," she repeated, pointing towards a waiting area. "You can take a seat out there and wait, but you can't come in."

I looked over and noticed Captain Stone sitting in one of the chairs in the waiting area. She sat stock still and upright, her hammer resting on her knees as she gripped it tightly. Clearly I wasn't the only one having a hard time coming back down after the battle. I strode over to her, waving my hand in front of her face to get her attention as she stared off into space. She blinked, then stood up, an angry expression on her face.

"What are you doing up?" She demanded, "Get back in bed and heal properly." I responded by pointing to LIWI on my waist.

"We're back online, I can heal Lieutenant Rivers." I informed her. She paused for a moment, an angry correction dying before it could be voiced, then she pivoted and stepped purposefully back into the entrance of the burn ward.

"Sterilize," she ordered, pointing to the station in the corner of the room. "I'll get you in."

I removed the top half of my undersuit, discarding the muddy and bloody fabric on a chair and replacing it with a set of scrubs from the station. The long pants covered the lower half of my undersuit, so I set to work masking up and scrubbing in. A few minutes later I was ready to go, hands held up and away from anything to make sure I didn't accidentally pick up bacteria from the environment. The nurse was busy angrily arguing with Captain Stone about necessary personnel, but Stone answered her argument by dropping her hammer head down, allowing it to fall to the ground with a reverberating *thump* that shook the floor and cracked the tile it landed on. The nurse fell silent, so Captain Stone strode over to the entrance, opening the door and ushering me through.

Inside I navigated the ward quickly to avoid being caught, finding Rivers covered in a space blanket and hooked up to all kinds of monitoring systems.

"How's it going?" I asked him as I entered, but he didn't respond. I realized the mask was concealing my face, so I repeated myself in sign language.

He shrugged, then pointed with one hand to where a steady drip of morphine was falling into an IV tube. Figuring that was enough explanation of his condition I stepped over and set LIWI to work. The three of us chatted, me translating LIWI's comments into sign language for the Lieutenant's benefit. It took almost half an hour for LIWI's reduced healing rate to resolve the third degree burns on his skin, but gradually they reduced into a series of long and painful looking bright red second degree burns, accompanied by blisters in several areas.

Sorry, that's all I've got for now. LIWI apologized, and I communicated his words to the Lieutenant. Rivers took it in stride, offering a weak thumbs up.

"I'll take what I can get after today." He replied carefully.

I grinned behind my mask, a performative gesture that didn't help anyone.

"Hey, you got lucky. Your skin could have melted off completely instead of just burning." Rivers didn't respond, just looking away uncomfortably. Too late I realized that I had probably just stirred up the raw memories of Harriet's death. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other awkwardly, then signed again.

"Sorry."

He sat for a moment, then turned back to me.

"It's not okay, and I won't tell you it is. But I'll recover. Harriet won't. I don't know if I even want to keep..." He trailed off, letting his hands fall into his lap silently.

"Just… Let's get out of here and get Helios back to base."