damned_institute | Nightshift 36: Main Hallway, 2-West

[from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/491309.html?thread=40117805#t40117805)]

The stairs were a little tricky, his body not quite wanting to remember how to work. Thankfully there was a railing and he was able to use it for support and mostly hide his condition. He did, however, stop at the top of the stairs, at the intersection leading towards their eventual goal. He leaned up against the wall briefly. "Give me a moment," he said to Artemis and Toboe. "Then we'll continue."

Toboe nodded. "Okay." Really, Hitsugaya looked like he needed more than just a little break. But Toboe set himself to keeping watch for anything waiting to attack without saying anything else. He smelled that Renamon had been through this hallway already--judging from the strength of the scent amongst the reek of blood and decay, more than once. He didn't see anything threatening in the shadows, at least not yet.

While Toboe may have thought the Captain looked like he needed a little rest, Artemis was convinced that there was something seriously wrong with the Captain. Since when did he make bad puns and laugh at them? Since when did he laugh? Artemis had been far too taken aback by the joked to say something like, 'Oh yes, I've never heard that one before, Captain. I shall have to write it down'. So he kept it to himself when he finally realized it in the stairwell.

This whole situation made Artemis very nervous. Hitsugaya was clearly out of commission, Artemis had no idea if Toboe had any super-secret abilities or powers that he wasn't yet aware of, and Artemis was traveling tonight with oxygen tubes stuffed up his nose and a tank slung at his side. Oh yes, this was a brilliantly formed rescue group.

But he had promised Momo that he would look after not only Hitsugaya, but Renji as well. He'd been entrusted with those tasks and this time he was going to finish them. No matter what it took.

Hitsugaya paused for a few seconds, giving himself a chance to focus himself. The movement was helping, though, as the physical exertion kept him awake and as focused as possible. As the night progressed, too, so did he gradually feel better and better.

Not perfect, certainly, but well enough to continue. "Let's keep going," he said. "This should be easy. There hasn't been any sign of monsters in this coming corridor in days...if something shows up, we withdraw. Neither Fowl nor I are in prime condition for combat. That's why we're doing the easy job tonight."

He didn't mean to say the last sentence out loud and inwardly cursed himself for his lack of control. He didn't need to justify his reasons to them, especially not in such a simple manner. Who said this was the "easy" job, anyways? "Abarai should be right around this corner," he said, brushing past his words. "Let's be quick about it."

[to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/495383.html?mode=reply)]

Toboe skidded to a stop once they got out of the hallway and looked back nervously--were they coming? Should he put Artemis down and go back to try to help? There were just so many of the creatures...he didn't know what to do about Artemis's injuries, either.

Toboe whined and put a bit more distance between them and the hallway they'd just run out of. If Hitsugaya and Renji weren't out soon, he was going back.

[from the same damn place (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/495383.html?thread=40581143#t40618775)]

Hitsugaya flashstepped once, then kicked off the wall and continued the velocity around the hall. Hoping they were far enough away to escape the nurses he collapsed with Renji in a heap next to Toboe and Artemis. He pushed himself away from Renji and pushed himself up on his hands and knees, throwing up a large quantity of blood in the process. He felt woozy again, but it was no longer due to the drugs in his system. Now it was simply from loss of blood. "Good work," he coughed out to Toboe. "Call for help if you can."

Still, there was a little energy left in him. Enough to keep one of them alive...

...but only one.

He glanced between Renji and Artemis, hating the choice that lay before him. Heal Renji and Artemis would die...the boy's magic wasn't closing the wounds like it had before, so there was no relying on that. He'd lose admittedly one of the few friends he'd made here, even if he was a smartmouthed brat. Heal Artemis and they'd lose yet another shinigami, a man who'd proven himself again and again since being here, who'd offered support in more ways than Hitsugaya could have even hoped. If Hitsugaya were the head of Arts and Crafts, there was no denying that Renji was the heart. Without him, he saw no way that Arts and Crafts would survive.

But Renji was a shinigami. Renji had a duty to uphold and in his actions he had done so. He would die here in service to others, just the way he would have wanted it. In the end there was really no choice about it. He turned to Artemis and willed his last bit of reiatsu into the boy, coursing through him and cleansing some of the poison. It would be enough to keep Artemis Fowl alive, if only barely. Blood poured out his ears and eyes as the last of the reiatsu escaped from him and he collapsed against the wall.

"That's...that's all I can do," he whispered.

First, he had the satisfying moment of going in for the kill, and then goddamn things hurt, and worse, and worse, and then everything stopped making any kind of sense at all. Renji wheezed, barely able to breathe around the burning pain that seemed to be spreading out across his chest, and started trying to stand. One of the few things he could be certain of was that he hadn't killed everything in that hall, and there were people around, which meant beyond his own revenge, he still had a duty. "Get 'em out of here," he whispered, though to no one in particular. Somehow, he managed to make it up to one knee, with one hand braced against the floor. There seemed to be a lot of blood, though not nearly enough for just how much everything hurt, and it kept getting worse with each strangled breath.

This was all happening too fast again. First he had been running into the fight alongside Renji--a particularly hopeless fight, in retrospect--and then he had suffered grave injury. Again. He felt the nurse's arm go right through his shoulder, giving him an almost identical wound to the one Ken had given him. It must have been some sort of a record, being mortally wounded twice in two night. Hitsugaya would probably have some choice words for him once he and Renji were on their feet again. That's how it had worked last time, anyway. He hallucinated from blood loss until Hitsugaya healed him and chewed him out.

But it hurt so badly, the poison working its way through his body. So much that he hadn't noticed Toboe pull him out of the deadly situation. He only became aware of what was going on around him when Hitsugaya began healing him. The Captain was bleeding everywhere.

"No, Captain," Artemis wheezed as he felt Hitsugaya's reiatsu enter him and begin to patch up his wounds. Why wasn't his magic doing anything? "No... you won't have enough for Renji, stop it...!"

The poison was being removed from his system, but everything still hurt like hell. Artemis wasn't sure if the Captain was actually slumping against the wall, bleeding, or if he was only hallucinating that. The fact that Renji remained unhealed was enough to prompt the boy's brain that what was happening wasn't just a dream.

Weakly, Artemis outstretched a hand to Renji. If he could just touch him, everything would be alright. Everyone would get out of this okay. "Heal..."

A lone blue spark lept off Artemis' index finger, and died in the space between them. Nothing. It was gone, all of it was gone. "Heal...!" Artemis insisted. Nothing again. It couldn't be gone, not when he needed it the most.

Edited 2008-11-12 04:35 (UTC)

"Don't talk!" Toboe barked softly, before awkwardly shimmying out of his sweatshirt--it had blood stains on it, from Artemis's wounds--and tearing at his t-shirt with his teeth to make bandages. This was how humans fixed wounds...wasn't it? The blood was everywhere...

He couldn't run for help, not with all of them so injured, not with all the monsters around here. He was the only one uninjured, the only one who could even stand a chance at driving anything away.

This was the only thing he'd be able to do.

"And don't move!" he barked at Renji, but he wasn't sure what he could do there. The smell of blood was overpowering, enough to make him nauseous, and there was so much of it...Toboe couldn't even tell where everyone was hurt.

"Renji, no," Hitsugaya weakly argued. "The poison...I couldn't heal you." There really wasn't anything else to say. He couldn't do anything to save Renji, Fowl's magic was obviously gone, and Toboe was a wolf.

"Ca...call for help," Hitsugaya said weakly to Toboe. "Maybe someone will hear. The monsters will smell the blood anyways, shouting wouldn't draw any new ones to us."

Not really understanding the voices gabbling around him, Renji attempted to stand anyway, only to come crashing back down to his knees. He gasped out a mouthful of blood, curling in around himself as the pain continued to burn through him. "Shoulda... shoulda watched out for that snake," he said, wheezing out a chuckle. With nothing else making sense, he simply settled on the first memory that seemed to fit what was going on, the feeling of poison. "Sorry, Rukia. Shoulda watched out better." He gritted his teeth, refusing to make a sound of pain. He didn't want to make anyone worry.

He fell slowly onto his side, arms clutched so tightly against his chest that his muscles shuddered. He squinted at the blurry shapes he could make out between strands of loose hair. "Taichou? Where's..."

But no, she was gone. That was right, gone. He let out a harsh cough. "Gotta find her," he mumbled.

Artemis looked wildly around as Renji began to fall into delusion. Most likely from the poison. He couldn't do anything, as injured as he was and without any magic left in him.

"Renji, Renji!" Artemis shouted, his voice harsh and raspy from both of his injuries. "Stay with us, we're going to get help!"

The boy rolled onto his side and tried to push himself up on his arms. He was so weak, but this wasn't the time to let his body give out. "Come on... Toboe," he ground out, gritting his teeth against the pain. "We need to get a healer, we need help...!"

Toboe ran a bit farther down the hallway, toward the stairs, before cupping his hands over his mouth and shouting--loudly. His voice didn't carry nearly as far as a howl would have, but he was still loud--and especially when he wanted to be heard.

"Someone help!! There's people hurt here!!"

Hitsugaya coughed again, spitting out coagulated bits of blood but nothing fresh. He'd survive, of course. Fowl'd live, too, as usual. If they couldn't get help, though, Renji wouldn't. He didn't even know how much time Renji had left. His reiatsu was very weak, though, so he imagined they didn't have long.

"No," he coughed out. "Conserve your strength...we'll find you a healer...we..we have to."

But he already knew in his gut it was too late.

Renji shut his eyes tightly for a moment, then cracked them open again. He reached out with one hand and managed to clumsily grab the front of Artemis' shirt, dragging the boy a little closer. He licked his lips, concentrating on what was really going on. Artemis; talking to Artemis was important. And it needed to be done while he could still manage to breathe. "When ya get my sword, give it to Lucivar," he whispered. "An... take care of my books."

He managed the ghost of a smile, blood running from the corner of his mouth. "Don't give me that look," he whispered. "It'll be okay."

The look that Renji was describing was most likely a look of utter shock and terror. But Artemis couldn't be sure. He'd lost all feeling in his face when he'd heard what Renji had told him.

"N... No," Artemis finally found his mouth after a few tries. "No Renji, I won't do any such thing--it's not necessary. You're going to be fine," Artemis' voice was wavering. "The Captain says we'll find a healer and you'll be fine... you can't die while I live, you just... can't."

The tears spilled over his eyelashes and down his cheeks. "It's not fair... it can't happen this way, I won't let it. I didn't even have a chance to tell you...!"

The way this was going, Artemis was almost certain that nothing would be okay. If Renji died for his sake, nothing would ever be right again. Renji served people, and what did Artemis do that was so grand? Serve himself? No, this was all wrong, this was backwards. He should have been the one suffering from the poison now, not Renji. Not Renji, who had been his first friend here and the one he turned to regularly for sound, down-to-earth advice. This wasn't fair at all. This couldn't happen.

"TOBOE!" Artemis shouted, gripping Renji's hand as though that would keep him alive. "WHERE IS THE GODDAMNED HEALER?!"

He'd never felt this powerless before.

Toboe hunched and watched the people going by in the shadows, whining softly. "I don't know. I don't know. Why isn't anyone...why aren't they helping?"

Once more, Toboe shouted. Maybe this time...someone would listen. "Someone help!! Please, we need help!!"

Hitsugaya was quiet for some time, his head lowered as he heard Renji's last requests...and that's what they were.

No one was coming for them. As loudly as Toboe shouted, as desperately as Artemis pleaded, any help would be too late.

All because he chose to save the human.

"Fowl," Hitsugaya said quietly. "We're not going to find a healer in time. You know that..."

"It'll be... okay," he repeated. He tried to cough, but found that he didn't have the strength to do so; it felt like the pain had wrapped around his chest like an iron band that couldn't be moved.

Hope they find you, Rukia. Hope they save you like I couldn't.

He didn't breathe again.

[ooc: aaaaand I'm out! It was lovely guys, thank you!]

"NO!" Artemis shouted, turning his attention away from Renji to yell at Hitsugaya, "No, we are going to find one! He's not going to die, I won't--!"

The boy turned back to Renji as he repeated the words again. His hysteria immediately kicked up several notches when he realized Renji wasn't breathing. The hand that was in both of his was suddenly very cold.

"Renji! RENJI!!" Artemis screamed, shaking the man's shoulder. "No, no... no no no, no...!" His mind started racing. He could fix this. This wasn't so hard, he'd brought people back from the dead before. He could just do CPR until a healer arrived. Or put Renji in the freezer and call Holly. Or he could just do it himself. Yes, that's what he'd do.

He sat, holding Renji's hand, shuddering uncontrollably, tears freely streaming down his cheeks. He couldn't do anything. Renji was gone. He was gone...

Because of him. Because he had rushed in when Hitsugaya had told him to retreat. Because Hitsugaya had healed him instead of Renji. Another man was dead because of him.

Artemis looked up at the ceiling and screamed as loud as he could. It was the only way he could expel everything he was feeling.

[running in from here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/497998.html?thread=40632910#t40632910)]

Before he'd reached the top of the stairway Hanatarou had heard the shouting from the hallway and the second call for help, and was moving as quickly as he possibly could. And yet, even as he burst through the door and staggered a few steps to regain his balance (wincing slightly at the pain from his very-recently-bruised leg) he knew that it was already too late.

The healer flinched at Artemis' scream, finally reaching the group wide-eyed and out of breath and yet still unable to do anything to help his friend. He'd taken too long recovering after healing Bridget, too long making his way through the hallways up here, and he'd only proven himself once more to be worthless and unreliable.

"T-taichou, Fowl-san, I..." 'I'm too late, I'm sorry' wasn't anywhere near adequate to express what he was feeling, so Hanatarou just swallowed and continued, pulling makeshift bandages out of the pillowcase he was carrying. "W-who needs help more?" There was so much blood everywhere and he hadn't been there and he carefully didn't quite look at Renji again and remind himself of the one he hadn't been able to help.

Toboe's ears rang from Artemis's scream, his head spun.

There hadn't been anything they could do.

At a complete loss, Toboe slowly and dazedly made his way back, kneeling beside Artemis and beside Renji. Apologizing seemed so useless. The wolf reached out instead and wrapped his arms around the slightly smaller boy.

Hanatarou's timing couldn't have been worse. He didn't need Artemis' scream to know that Renji had passed on, and it had all been his fault. Hitsugaya had lost many shinigami before, some directly due to orders that necessarily placed them in danger, but never before was he forced to make a decision such as the one he had made. He prayed he would never have to make such a decision again. The feeling of guilt crept into his stomach and twisted and turned it about.

He stared at Hanatarou for ten long seconds before speaking. "Fix Fowl first."

Considering the circumstances, one could say that Artemis wasn't entirely himself. Artemis himself would have said the same, because the moment Toboe touched him, the boy seized the other boy around the middle and began sobbing into his shirt.

"N-no!" Artemis shouted. "Can't you see I've suffered enough?! Watching other people in pain at my expense?! Heal the Captain first!"

Edited 2008-11-15 08:01 (UTC)

Hanatarou didn't know the boy who was attempting to console Artemis, but at least one of them was able to do something useful. The healer could only meet Hitsugaya's eyes for a fraction of a second before he was forced to look down at the floor again, but he could still almost feel the captain's gaze boring into him.

Rather than any accusations or lectures, though, all he received was an order, and the healer nodded quickly before crouching beside Artemis. "Ah, F-Fowl-san, please hold still," he begged, reaching toward the boy's shoulder with his bandages in hand. Even if Artemis insisted, Hitsugaya still outranked him and orders were orders. Now if only his patient would be cooperative enough to allow him to carry them out.

Nightshift 36: Main Hallway, 2-West

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