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The first thing that Enjin sees when he opens his eyes, is a pair of morganite widening themselves.
He feels like he should have recognized those eyes, but when he wants to confronts, he can barely move.
In fact, he can barely do anything, other than lying there—wherever he is. He tries to open his mouth, but the pair of eyes suddenly panics.
What happens, Enjin wants to say. But the words only come out breathlessly, barely audible.
"Please, refrain from speaking, yet, Enjin," the voice finally infiltrates his hearing. It takes a moment for Enjin to put a name into the voice and the face.
Eishia Stilza.
They belong to Eishia Stilza.
Enjin tries to look around, but the stinging pain around his neck suddenly halts his movement. He ends up wincing and Eishia returns to her healer mode. Putting her hand gently on his shoulder, as if she wants to prevent Enjin from leaving the bed.
The bed.
He's pretty sure, this isn't his bed and this isn't the infirmary either.
"You've lost a lot of blood," Eishia says, for someone whose voice is wavering, her hand is surprisingly steady as she checks on Enjin's vital. "Me and Auggie were on our way to you when we saw the explosion. Right when we arrived, Rudo was still trying to stop your bleeding but you were already losing consciousness."
Explosion—
"Gountess—" he tries to mouth the word.
Something flashes before Eishia's eyes. Grief. The kind that Enjin usually sees when someone has failed even over something that isn't their responsibility.
"I was too late," Eishia answers in small voice, the tremble more apparent now. "Rudo, he asked me to save him, but I couldn't do anything when there was no body to save."
Enjin tries to recall the incident before he lost his consciousness. He remembers hearing Rudo talking about Gountess, the mention of Alto, and everything began to blur until he managed to be conscious enough when he sensed the upcoming danger.
Gountess has sacrificed himself.
Along with the secret only he knows, too, apparently; Enjin knows that much.
"Rudo—" he mouths again. Eishia smiles when she sees that word come out of his lips.
"Has been worried sick about you," she says. "I have Amo helping me patch him up. Riyo too. I have as many people as I can gather to help everyone. Auggie, Mildretta—everyone. But you're in the worst condition, so I have to focus all my energy on you."
So, Rudo and Riyo are okay. At least, at some degree.
But—
Enjin can feel the blood drains from his face, when he notices someone's name is missing. Eishia cannot possibly skip that name intentionally. Eishia has turned to adjust her machine, but she must have been able to sense that Enjin knows she doesn't mention someone on purpose.
"Enjin," she starts, preceding him. "Zanka is being taken away."
The first thing that Enjin does when he hears that is trying to get off the bed.
He feels like he should have done more, but when he wants to confronts, he can barely move.
In fact, he can barely do anything, other than lying there—wherever he is. He tries to open his mouth, he tries to wake up, but it feels like he's bound to the bed, rendered useless.
What the fuck is happening, Enjin wants to say. But the words only come out breathlessly, barely audible.
"There's this Hell Guard, he's carrying Zanka, and—and, Zanka is bleeding a lot, I've told him that I can't do anything without the power cord but then Auggie came and he also freaked out, when he saw Zanka. I tried—I tried to do my best to make him better, but his wound—his wound is so severe, I could only give him temporary healing. So I've told the Hell Guard that he would need better healer—"
Enjin pales. Eishia fiddles with her hat nervously.
"Auggie tried to reason with him, but—the Hell Guard is so scary—and, and he punched Auggie—" Eishia sniffles. "I'm sorry, Enjin, I'm sorry I can't protect Zanka."
The anger, the rage, the anticipation of something goes horribly wrong is slightly numbed, when Enjin sees the healer starts crying.
With the last ounce of his energy, Enjin tries to reach for Eishia.
"Not your fault," he tries to speak. Eishia nods, but she still cries anyway.
The poor girl has done a lot, has done her best to save everyone—Zanka, Enjin too.
Enjin is still scared about Zanka's whereabouts, but knowing Goka is nearby when Mymo started going crazy, he can only hope that it's Zanka's own blood who finally takes care of his little brother.
Enjin doesn't want to think about the worse outcome, when he's unable to prevent anything from happening. If Eishia, THE Eishia Stilza, is having a hard time to heal Zanka, how bad Zanka's condition actually is?
He knows, he will need to ask about the details to Eishia later, but right now, Enjin has to believe that Zanka is safe, at least, at some extent. That even if he's not fully healed, his own family surely won't let him die.
His own family surely still has fucking compassion towards their estranged family member.
Enjin doesn't have the privilege to think otherwise.
"Enjin!"
Eishia quickly wipes her tears, when the door is slammed open and Riyo barges in.
She's definitely not in her best conditions with bandages all over her body, but at least she seems okay. Rudo tails behind, still looks like a spooked cat, or wolf—if Enjin wants to be precise. But he also looks generally fine, even if Enjin is half-scared he would drop dead out of fatigue, all of sudden.
"How's he, Eishia?"
Eishia clears her throat, focusing herself on her notepad.
"His vital gets more stable. But I am afraid his recovery will be slow, even slower than when I treated Zanka back then—"
Eishia clamps her mouth shut, the moment she realizes she has made a mistake of saying the name.
The room is silent for a moment. Enjin hates it.
Hates that he's so fucking useless, hates that Zanka escapes his sight, hates that he can't fucking do anything to not let this happen.
"We're gonna get him back," Rudo inches closer to Enjin's bed, for someone who's still reeling from the shock of what has just happened, he seems determined enough. "Zanka—we're gonna save him."
"Damn right, we will." Riyo takes another spot next to Enjin's bed, fixing Enjin's hair. Her eyes twinkle dangerously, with both tease and something darker. "You're gonna kick whoever's ass that dares to kidnap our Zanka, aren't you, Enjin?"
Enjin knows he shouldn't laugh, but he can't help himself.
The wheeze is fucking painful, but it's worth it.
"Definitely," even through his pain, the grin only feels liberating.
Nobody dares to touch the Akuta when Enjin is here, when Enjin can still be there for them.
Enjin will do everything to protect them all.
No exceptions.
There's still so many things to unravel, so many things to explain, so many things to find out.
One at the time.
And right now, Enjin knows they all have the same priority.
Forcing himself to speak out loud, he makes a promise, not just for everyone, but mostly for himself.
For Zanka.
His Zanzan.
"Let's bring our Zanka home."