Chapter Text
“It’s indisputable,” Xeno says, more to himself than anyone else. “This elegant machine far surpasses technology from the old world.”
He lowers the little metal object, eyes catching the flash of movement coming from the doorway.
“Where’s the trigger?” Stanley asks. “How long is it active? And what range does it have?” His old friend’s voice is rather cold, though his lack of emotion may have more to do with the body over his shoulder than his disinterest.
The stench of Odie’s blood sours Xeno’s stomach even more than the knowledge that he’s just had his former student murdered.
“I’m so sorry Stanley,” Poor Gen sounded like he was barely holding it together at the sight of a bloodsoaked Stanley. “Only the battle team was allowed to know all that! All I do know is that it’s totally inescapable, and if we rush to overtake the ship, there will be nothing to stop them from petrifying us all!”
Stanley just stares at him, eyes burning in the same way his sister’s do when she’s mentally measuring someone. Silently calculating and storing information for later use.
“Lay her down, Stanley,” Xeno says, gesturing towards one of the curtains sectioning off parts of the lab, behind which was a cot used for medical purposes. The man gives a short, strained nod, and lurches forward. He looks slightly ill and off balance, though Xeno doubts anyone else in the room notices the difference. Or if they do, they’re smart enough to keep their mouths closed.
Stanley vanishes behind the curtain, the sheet hiding him and his sister from further view for a few brief seconds before he reappears. He gives Xeno another small nod, and the two of them head towards the door, Maya on their tails with young Gen in tow.
He’d get to the bottom of what happened later. For now, he needed to focus on what was in front of him. He needed to focus on what happened next.
-
Stanley burns his clothes, gloves and all. There would be no getting the blood out of them, no matter how many times they’re washed. He has plenty of extra things to wear, anyway. What was one outfit in the sea of many?
He hadn’t been able to be in the lab while Xeno was digging bullet shrapnel out of Odie’s shoulder. The sounds of her screaming due to lack of anesthesia made his stomach turn in a way it hasn’t in years. He’d instead dragged Gen off to lock him in a room he could sleep in while guarded, and gone to rub his skin raw with the primitive soap Xeno had made. He can still smell it on him, though. The blood. Her blood.
Four years of careful work, just to get her to willingly look at and speak to him, went out the window in less than a second. Asking for forgiveness from her wasn’t going to be enough. There was too high a chance that what little bit of a relationship they had left was so deep in the metaphorical hole that he’d never be able to dig it back out.
Not that he could really blame her. He was the one that pulled the trigger. He was the one that fucking shot her.
If he’d waited another half a second. If he’d just been slightly more patient.
But there was nothing that could be done now. All he could do was wait. Wait to hear that her surgery was finished, wait to hear that she was going to be alright. All he could do was wait to hear whether she even survives.
Stone World surgery was something even Xeno had wanted to avoid. There was no way to really help with the pain of the procedure, and the risk of infection was severe due to the lack of a truly sterile environment.
He’s not sure how many times he’s paced the room by now. Dozens, at least. But he can’t stop moving. If he does, his body vibrates and his head spins. At least while in motion he knows his lungs are still working.
He curses the fact that Xeno had made clocks. Keeping track of time was important, but Stanley didn’t want to know how much time had passed since he left Odie in Xeno’s hands. He didn’t want to know that it was taking far too long for someone to notify him that the surgery was over.
It comes off one wall and smashes into pieces next to the door, right as it opens. Xeno raises his eyebrows, eyes going from the broken machine, to Stanley’s harshly panting form.
Shit. He nearly hit him with the damn thing.
“Stanley,” Xeno says, voice measured and careful. “I need you to come with me.”
There were only two immediate options as to why, and one of them made him want to throw up.
“Take me.”
-
The lab reeks of blood, the sounds of labored breathing scraping across the walls. Xeno leads Stanley towards the back, where he’d been carefully taking care of Odie for the past three hours. She looked terrible. Her skin was too pale, and there was blood everywhere. In a tray, sat three chunks of metal, as well as a handful of tools that had been used to dig them out of her flesh.
“I cannot find any more fragments,” Xeno is saying. “I believe she’s clear.”
Good. That was good. But she still looked-
“ However. Between the journey here, and her surgery, she’s lost quite a bit of blood. She’s not conscious enough to tell me her blood type, but I do remember you two being a match.”
“Yeah,” Stanley says. “We are. I can give her what she needs.”
He’d had to do it before, when she was tiny and had been in an accident with their father. Their mother had been useless that day, too angry at her shitty husband for wrecking the car to even think about saving her daughter.
God , he could remember that like it was just a handful of minutes ago. Xeno’s parents had taken him to the hospital, his best friend sitting with him the whole time while a fourteen year old Stanley took over for his failing parents. He hadn’t known his own blood type back then, it hadn’t been important. But he’d demanded to be tested to see if he could donate for her, and when he came back as a positive match, he sat next to her and told the doctors to get it over with.
Xeno wasn’t a medical doctor, but he’d still learned enough human anatomy and taken other similar courses while in college, so he had a basic enough understanding of what he needed to do. He’s quick and efficient, preparing both Stanley and Odie for the transfusion with studied skill. He’s not perfect, and it takes him a moment to find the right veins, but he still gets it done.
“You’re definitely going to bruise,” Xeno says, making idle chatter.
“That’s fine,” Stanley says. “No one’ll see it anyway.”
It doesn’t occur to Stanley until it’s too late that he’s now stuck here until Xeno says otherwise. Which meant that now, he’d have to answer all the questions that have been piling up since he brought her home.
“Would you care to tell me what exactly happened?” Xeno asks, grabbing a stool to sit across from Stanley, just out of reach.
“I took a bad shot,” Stanley says, avoiding his friend’s eyes.
“You never take a bad shot,” Xeno says. “Not even when we were children. You’ve always had the most elegant and impeccable aim.”
“I couldn’t see. The Ishigami kid hid, and I fired blind.”
“Yet, you’re certain you hit him,” It’s not a question.
“Yes.”
“But you also hit your sister.”
“Yes.”
“So then the only explanation is that she covered Senku’s body with her own.”
“I-”
“And you fired anyway.”
“I didn’t know she was going to do that!” Stanley snaps. Xeno’s eyes narrow to an almost dangerous degree, his dissatisfaction clear.
“Stanley, when I agreed to allow you to use that nitric acid on Odelia, what was the one thing I made you swear to do if she awoke?” Xeno asks.
“Take better care of her.”
“Exactly. Because you wanted this new world to be a fresh start for you and your sister. It was the only thing you asked for, and I, as your friend, colleague, and pseudo-brother to Odelia, was in full support of this endeavor. I have never been more disappointed in you in my entire life. ”
Stanley wished he could bite his own tongue off, and perish.
“I didn’t know,” Stanley repeats. “That she’d do something that stupid just to spite me.”
Xeno sighs, heavy and exhausted in a way only someone who had been dealing with this for years could.
“I understand that, Stan. However, if there was even a chance she could be in the line of fire, you should have hesitated, even if it meant failing to kill Senku. There would have been plenty of other opportunities,” Xeno says, rubbing his forehead.
A soft, pained noise from Odie has both men turning their attention back to her. Her face had a little more color, now that she was getting new blood in her system, but she still looked like she was teetering on the edge.
“Is she gonna make it?” Stanley asks, afraid of the answer.
“That is yet to be seen. An infection in this new world could kill her. She’s going to need to be monitored for a while,” Xeno pauses, eyes sliding back to his oldest friend. “Can you do it, Stan?”
“Yeah. I can do it.”
“This may be your last chance. Do not squander it again.”