"That was kind of mean, ne?"
The voice, of course, came from somewhere near at hand. The medic had his headphones in; the rest of the crew were outside the door, far away from the playfully melodic chirping of Luca's guardian angel.
"I think, even for a Mishhuvurthyar, that action was kind of cold,
An-chan. But, you see why I kept it?"
The world to Luca Pavone was still a maelstrom of whirring colours, beings aetheric, netheric and otherworldly through mad eyes. One of the few things that did manage to stand itself out from the chaos was
her. Cheeky little imp, voice of reason, and deadlier by herself than the whole damn crew combined. "Ugh..." He was trying to get his bearings and focus on reality, but it always seemed just out of his grasp, "I can't fight ... like this."
He felt the pressure against his side before he saw the slight, telltale ripples in the visual spectrum that the 'angel' brought with her holography; the arm that wasn't numb nestled itself up against a body that was both warm and firm, but too dangerous to be sexual.
"If it were my intention to kill you out of some sense of vengance I would not need to do it now. You have piqued my curiousity, you know?" Luca raised an eyebrow at the statement. "I watched the entire thing."
The entire thing. All over the walls, the floor, the ceiling, on his arm,
in his arm. It was a difficult thing to avoid, and even more difficult to ignore. Luca simply tapped the back of his head against the operating table he was on, twice. Bok, bok. He could've sworn they sounded hollow.
"Thought... you'd intervene, or, something..."
Meanwhile, Jimmy, the Medic, was still getting the antidote syntehsised. Still not paying attention to what was going on behind him, focus consumed by biomedication.
"I could have. But I would have killed your crew, and somehow I think you wouldn't like that, Captain."
"If you'd killed me first, I probably wouldn't care anyway," He interjected with a gruff snort.
"It would have been a waste. I have never seen a Yamataian or Geshrinii go red-mad before. I figure, you're more my type than all of these crew of yours all together. I wonder what you're going to do with it. That knowledge, in the back of your mind. It's scary?" Luca felt the hand across his chest - then at the nape of his neck. "
Ne?"
Knowledge of what? Luca wondered for a moment. Blinking as he stared at the ceiling lights, refraining from counting the scratches in the metal. "I wouldn't be where I was now without them," He sighed and cricked his neck as best as he could, "Is it like that proverb with the birds... they just jump out of the nest or something-"
"No. It is a different proverb entirely," Naoko explained, whispering it into Luca's ear, "I'll be the first to tell you."
"Go on." He murmured, head turning and brown eyes looking into hers - where he thought they must be. Where the faint shimmers, like heat waves, appeared on the edge of his vision - like some sort of transparent water-image.
"I was born as nothing and sent to nothing," Naoko explained, "But within that very same day I discovered that I was more than that; I killed reds. Then I killed greens. They were weak so I crushed them; It is hard to see Nepleslians and Elysians as otherwise when they cry and curl up, helpless. You know I ripped the wings off of one, once, and listened to the screaming. I've seen weak from the perception of a strong
thing; because of this I can dispel this stupid weak lie that they have about justice and honor. The only things you can grasp are those that you defend with your own life. Do you fight for a cause?
Luca was short of an answer on his immediate forefront, however skewed it was.
"
Iie, An-chan."
The whispered words became a light kiss, on the very edge of his ear.
"You fight for you, Aniki-
kun. What sort of idiot can stand up to someone like that? I'm a
weapon with no handler. I fight for me and me alone. I fight because I want to fight. After so long, it's just for the sake of fighting; I could go far far away, and live forever, but it's not enough for me, no. There are pleasures in life, but they come at cost. You're red-mad, just like me. Now you know the truth about the world, too. You're a wild card, Ace, you don't answer to anyone but yourself.
"You're in the dark now,
Aniki; what do you want to do with it?"
Whether it was a suggestion or the truth was getting smudgy for Luca, but there were some diamonds amongst the dragnet. Gleaming, blinding his thoughts - so visible yet so hard to put into words, "Whatever I damn well please." He grinned, shielding his eyes from what he'd kept close to his heart all along - all since those humble beginnings in Ralt.
"That's worth losing some drugs over," Naoko admitted. Luca turned over to the other side, to see Jimmy still preoccupied, but judging by his waiting, it seemed like the antidote was in its late stages of synthesis.
"Looks like I'll be walking soon, you better..." He looked around, and couldn't see those telltale traces of distortion around him, and grinned.
Clever girl. He could see Jimmy putting those drugs into an injection device, and he angled his head back at the ceiling, and resumed being lost in colourful oblivion... at least for now.
Jimmy turned around and took off his headphones, and in addition to the on-the-fly analysis of the toxins there was some classical music.
Airano's 7th Symphony, Second Movement - one that never failed to make the listener wonder about their possibilites, "Alright, just stay still, and I'll get this over with. You'll be drowsy for a few hours, but the neurotoxic damage is reversible."
"Why is the pointy thing heading my way?" Luca asked incredulously, half feigning, and half because he was genuinely concerned about the broadsword coming dangerously close to his right arm - or so he would perceive.
