[X] Moved to stop Cent. He had too much momentum to stop, there wasn't any stopping at this point, but if she just charged through the wall and took the hit, she could shove him out of the way. She'd be hurt back, but wasn't that what a Hunter's job was?
Before it fully processed to Yang what she was doing, she was running. Sprinting as fast as she could, she barged through the walls with her eyes shielded by her elbow. The spikes covering it struck at her Aura before she hit the wall, so it shattered as Yang ran. When she continued her run, the spiked ice cut into her. She felt a cutting wound open up in her forearm, the one covering her eyes, and she was glad that she'd instinctively covered her eyes.
Then she felt the impact of the ice, and her momentum shattered the wall. The shard of ice cutting into her arm broke off, and was driven deeper into her arm by the force of the collision, but Yang worked through the pain. Her body would be bruised later, but for now, this was more important.
Cent was closer to the Undine then Yang was to Cent. The Undine, following the path of Yang's run, saw Cent approach and realised it was in danger. The girl behind the Undine wasn't reacting to anything.
The Undine was too exhausted to react in any meainingful, right now. Cent was moving too fast for it to run without risking the girl, and was too tired to use its magic to stop him.
But Yang was already in motion.
Around her, the shattered fragments of the wall began to fall. She felt dozens of them cut through her, front and back. Her thick clothing, meant to keep her warm, served as a somewhat protective layer, but enough sharpened fragments cut through that Yang cried out in pain.
A cut through the skin above her shoulder, a fragment cutting next to her spin, one cutting into her ribs, another striking the back of her head, more and more, to the point where the pain from one distracted Yang from identifying where another was hurting.
All that mattered was that she was
in pain.
...No, that didn't matter at all. She was a Huntress, or at least training to be one. It was in the job description, to be a foolhardy idiot and risk your life for another.
The girl said she'd die if the Undine died. Cent didn't know that, and would kill the Undine if he wasn't stopped. This was the only way to stop him in time.
With the amount of momentum behind her run, Yang barely stumbled as she burst through the ice, but it was still significant. Flinging her arm behind her, Yang fired Ember Celica to propel herself.
Cent heard the sound of a small explosion, and turned towards Yang as he started to bring his sword down. The Undine was starting to move out of the way, but wouldn't be able to move far enough in time without intervention.
The propulsion of her gun fired Yang through the air, while leaving a hole to the wall behind her. Just fast enough, for Yang to hit Cent's side, knocking him away from the Undine.
Cent hit the floor, and his sword hit the ground next to him. He let it go a moment later, as he tried to lift Yang up to move her off him.
"Yang?" He asked. "What are you doing?"
"Don't- Argh!" She cried out, as she moved her leg wrong and felt one of the shards of ice that hadn't melted yet move in her leg, cutting it further. She Closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, as she tried to count how
many were in her legs.
...Yeah, walking anytime soon? That's
hurt!
"Yang!" Said a voice from outside, and the girl tilted her head to look over at the source.
Blast Yellowstone ran in, gun in his hand, followed by Winter quickly walking in after him. Winter gave Yang a concerned look, before turning her gaze to the Undine.
"Stop." Yang said, through gritted teeth. "We don't need to-"
"Hold on." Blast said. "You're losing a lot of blood, just-"
The Undine looked at Yang, it's expression unreadable, and Winter pointed a sword at it, waiting for it to move.
"Forget my blood." Yang replied. "Stupid stuff keeps trying to escape my body, let it go. Doesn't know what it's missing. Just stop fighting so we can
talk about this."
The Undine spoke. "You-"
"Just
saved your life." Yang snarled. "If I was a threat to you or her, why'd I get all..."
Her vision blurred for a second, and Yang trailed off so she could blink and shake her head to focus her vision.
"...Why'd I save you if I wanted to hurt you?" Yang asked.
Everyone looked at her for a moment, which Yang took as a cue to talk.
"There's no point to this whole fight." She grunted, trying to focus. She was losing blood, wasn't she? Just needed to not move around much... "Undine thought we were a threat, was looking out for a kid. We're not gonna get anywhere by fighting about it."
Turning her head to look at the Undine, Yang continued. "And she's not gonna be okay out here on her own. You just
saw her breaking down, the isolation's gonna get to her more as she's out here. And then there's the whole thing about
food. Let her come with us.
We can help."
"I-"
"No arguing here." Yang snapped. "I want this fight
over, and I want everyone to just
talk and
help each other and I want it done before I pass out from blood loss."
The Undine looked at Yang, then back at the girl.
"It'll be easier this way." Yang said, trying to be softer. "You can either stop fighting and let us help her, or keep fighting and risk her life. I'm the only one who heard about the Pact thingy, after all-"
"I will stop."
"-So if you don't just try to talk about this, you could-"
"Yang." Blast said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "She said she'd stop."
Yang blinked. "...Oh. Didn't hear that."
"You're losing a lot of blood." Blast said. "You should really just relax. Let me handle this-"
There was the sound of wooshing air outside.
"Yang." Winter said. "You need to get back to the airship. Back to the medical bay. Which you have spent more time in than out of. I've got a Nevermore outside, it'll fly you back. Blast, go with Yang. If it starts getting too windy, stab the Nevermore, it'll go straight to the ground and walk you the rest of the way back."
"Yes, boss." Blast said, and through her blurred vision, Yang saw one of the blurs moving.
...Probably Blast reacting in some way. Yang took a step towards what she thought was the door, but stumbled.
"Easy, there." Blast said. "Boss said to help you back, so don't open up any of those wounds any worse, or
I'll get yelled at."
Yang blearily nodded, and closed her eyes. The blurring was starting to give her a headache.
"...m'fine." She muttered.
"And I'm the crown princess of the lost land of Atlanta." Blast replied.
He might have said something after that, but Yang was finding it hard to concentrate.
...Heh. Concentrate. Con-cent-rate. Cent.
Even barely conscious, Yang was hilarious.
~~~~~
Yang opened her eyes to the sound of beeping, and it occurred to her that she didn't remember passing out.
Well, at least she wasn't in pain this time. A lot of smaller wounds were a pain at the time, but with Aura and proper healing, at least it didn't hurt too bad.
Yang reached an arm out to stretch it, but hissed in pain a moment later, as the cut on her arm stung.
...That was gonna take a while to heal, wasn't it?
In fact, some of it might. A lot of it was just some cuts, but a lot of that ice had gone in rather deep. When there was too many wounds, they'd heal slower. It might take Yang a while before she was one-hundred percent again.
There were footsteps, and Yang turned to the source. As she did so, she paused momentarily at the sight of the broken door, unchanged except for how the area around the hole was now shiny and where the hole once was, there was a lot of tape. But then she saw the person ducking underneath and she blinked.
"Cent?" Yang asked.
"Thought I heard something." He said. "You're awake, then?"
"Yeah..." The yellow-haired girl replied.
"Good, good." Cent continued. "Being awake's a good thing. Your body can only heal so many muscles at once, and when you're asleep, it focuses on healing your brain so it doesn't degrade from not using it while sleeping."
"...Uh huh."
Cent looked like he was going to defend his statement, but then let it go. "Hey, Yang?"
"Hm?"
"I... Well, Winter talked with the Undine a bit." He said. "Two did too, once she arrived. They mentioned the whole Pact thing. How killing the Undine would've killed the girl. And... Well, thanks."
"Thanks?" Yang asked.
"For stopping me." Cent said. "I know I'm an idiot at times, but I would've felt like shit if I ended up killing a little girl. Two would have been heartbroken, and that would have made me feel worse, and... Well, thanks."
"t'was nothin'..." Yang groaned out.
"You're in a hospital bed." Cent replied.
"I'm getting used to it." Yang replied. "I wonder if Winter would let me move all my stuff in here, or if she'd think that was me asking for permission to continue being stupid and reckless and risking my life. She might actually kill me to stop me from doing so for much longer."
"I hear ya..." Cent replied. "Well, anyway, thanks. I owe you one, Yang. Really do."
"Don't worry about it." Yang replied. "Hey, what happened to the girl and Undine anyway?"
"Everyone's on the airship." Cent said. "The girl was given a room because she wasn't reacting. The Undine is with Winter, talking. Everyone else is listening in on Winter or walking around. They'd probably want to know you're awake, now that I think about it. And they could explain what happened better than me. I was too busy trying to find an appropriate time to flirt with Two to pay attention."
"...Well, at least you're honest about it." Yang noted drily.
Cent shrugged. "Well, it's not like there's a better use of my time. Anyway, I'll go get the others. You just stay right there, okay?"
"I would move." Yang started. "But that brings us back to the 'Winter would actually kill me' thing."
Cent chuckled, as he slid back under the broken door. As he did so, Yang looked upwards, up at the ceiling.
It was still unfamiliar, but it was less unfamiliar than before. She'd seen it before, but wasn't used to it. She hoped she didn't get used to it. It was always a bad sign when you recognised the roof of a hospital or medbay.
Yang admitted she was a thrillseeker, but she at least thought she'd learnt enough caution to not end up hurt every...
...In fact, wasn't it only a day or two since she had gotten
out of the medbay?
God damn it, it was like she was some sort of walking injury magnet. At this rate, Yang wouldn't be surprised if she tried to go on a fishing boat and ended up filled with fishing hooks and harpoons-
There was a firing sound, followed by something hitting Yang in her stomach. She cried out in reflex, as her back arched forward, and she reached down to feel the harpoon, and attached rope, that had bounced off her weakened Aura even as it shattered it.
Following the rope back to the source, Yang felt her heart plummet as she saw who had fired.
The harpoon gauntlets were being held by the girl from the cabin, who was looking at Yang with a tearstained face.
"You..." She choked. "My dad's..."
She couldn't finish the thought, instead slipping one of the oversized and loosely fitting gauntlets onto her hands as she approached Yang's side. Yang moved to get up and away, but stumbled as she tried to get off the hospital bed, falling to the ground face-first.
There was a weight on her back, as Yang felt the girl sit on top of her, before the gauntlet clad hand wrapped around Yang's neck. The girl's uncovered hand moved to tighten and hold the gauntlet's larger fingers over Yang's throat, but the hunter in training found her breathing cut off.
What the hell was happening now? The girl was trying to kill her? With the weapon of the mercenary from the vill-
Oh.
Oh.
That... That was the girl's father, wasn't it? And Yang had given the girl reason to think her father was dead earlier. And then she must have looked around in the rooms, found her father's weapons sitting on Yang's shelf like a trophy, and assumed...
Well, that hardly mattered right now, what with the girl trying to kill Yang. The yellow-haired girl felt the pain from the dozens of wounds on her body as she tried to escape the girl's grip without hurting her, and was rewarded with the girl tightening it.
Gritting her teeth, Yang wondered for a moment, what to do. It'd be possible to break out of this grip... But Yang didn't think she'd be able to do it without hurting the girl. An arm or a leg or
something, the girl was going to get hurt.
If she could just focus long enough, Yang could just wait for Cent to come back with the others... If she thought she could last that long.
By the way she had spots dancing in her vision already, Yang didn't think she'd be able to remain conscious for much longer. And if help didn't arrive soon enough, leaving Yang alone and defenceless against a crazed attack with a weapon that had nearly killed her once...
Struggling for oxygen, Yang-
[X] Resisted. The girl would get hurt, but it would be over in a moment. But if she hurt the girl too badly, it wouldn't help her mental state at all.
[X] Waited. Help was coming, she just had to focus for a little bit. But even if it arrived in time, how were the others going to get her off without hurting her?
