Buy a Little Mercy [Open; Potentially Graphic Material]

[cityship]

Less than an hour after the ship leaves Agrestic's orbit, an announcement is broadcast throughout Stacy.

|| Attention, crew. Your crewmates, Howard Bassem and Charles Merriman, have been apprehended attempting to desert. They will now be given Punishment. According to established guidelines, you are all requested to report to the Observation to witness the Punishment. Attendance is not mandatory, but highly suggested. This will serve as a reminder of the consequences of treason and desertion. ||

On the observation deck, Archon Yavek, Archite Rekkti, two other Daligig and a handful of Kessek soldiers stand outside a spherical force field. Inside the bubble, Orc and Howard are suspended by tentacles looping around their wrists. Orc's ceased thrashing around and struggling against his restraints; rust-colored fissures have developed around his shoulders and forearms from the strain, but now he simply hangs there, looking defeated. Howard's nose is bleeding, and every time a drop falls to the bottom of the forcefield there's a small sizzle. He's weeping and begging the Daligig with every plea possible, but they act as if they aren't listening. Instead, they wait for an audience.

Comments

[night_shift]

As Hiccup darted forward in a valiant but ultimately fruitless attempt to retrieve Goliath’s lost hand, Elisa ran to the gargoyle’s side and pulled off her jacket, using it to try and stem the blood flow as she knelt next to him, Kessek or no Kessek. The dark red leather was soon darkened even further by his blood. They needed to get him to the medical bay quickly, but there was no way that she could manage it on her own and she wasn’t sure how far he could get without help. She glanced around at the nearby members of the crew, looking increasingly desperate with each drop of blood that Goliath lost. Although most of the people on the observation deck were focused on the two boys suspended above them, or engaged in their own private skirmishes with the Daligig, some of them had been caught up – as she had been, as Hiccup had been – in Goliath’s fight.

Within a few seconds, it became clear that Hiccup would need medical treatment as well. She didn’t know him well, but she was grateful to him for what he’d tried to do, even if she wasn’t entirely surprised that it had failed.

“I’ll be back,” she murmured to Goliath, before crossing the blood stained ground to finish what Hiccup had started. She’d have risked it even if she hadn’t been able to overhear the exchange – there was a chance that it could be reattached – but it looked as if the fight really was over now.

She picked the hand up, trying not to think of the innumerable times that Goliath had used it to stroke her hair or take her hand as they stood underneath the stars. She couldn’t afford to fall apart and, steeling herself, Elisa returned to Goliath’s side.

“We need to get you out of here.”

[not_the_philistine]

Funny how disordered one's thoughts became, when one had lost a lot of blood and had a lot to think about. It occurred to him that Elisa's jacket was wrapped around the stump, and he was bleeding on it. Elisa loved that jacket. It would not do for him to bleed on it.

He'd stripped it off by the time she returned, wrapping his remaining fingers around his arm so tightly that his talons bit into his unbroken skin. He must have been in pain, because tears had begun leaking from his eyes, but a separation seemed to have come up between what his body felt and what his mind acknowledged.

A wound he would not recover from. A first for him. Being one-handed would present a lot of difficulties that he'd so long taken for granted. And the children would doubtlessly still receive Punishment. And Hiccup was even now still struck down for his sake.

But Elisa! She'd returned, and the Daligig had not ordered his execution in front of her, or harmed her at all. That was enough to make him smile. It even touched him, the way she'd returned with his severed hand, futile though the gesture was.

"Elisa." He sounded almost calm and pleased, as the shock settled in and his blood continued to pool in a slow trickle. "It cannot be helped. Sleep will stop the bleeding."

Why Stacy had not yet turned him to stone to allow him to heal, he did not know.

"Is the Viking injured?"

It didn't occur to him through his haze that Elisa would not know that the scrawny boy who'd darted forward and been struck down by the Kessek was a Viking at all.

[night_shift]

"It's also hours away," she pointed out, gently but firmly replacing the jacket. "If we get you to the medical bay quickly, they might be able to reattach it."

And if they couldn't, they could at least make sure that the blood loss and shock didn't kill him before he was healed by the stone sleep.

Elisa did a brief double take when he referred to Hiccup as a viking, but, as distracted as she was, it wasn't difficult to guess who he was referring to.

"Not as badly as you," she answered, putting Goliath's good arm around her shoulders to try and help him to his feet. She couldn't hope to carry him, but she could guide him in the right direction. "Come on, big guy."

[not_the_philistine]

Reattach it? They could do that? Human medicine was a marvel.

The only flaw in that plan was that though Goliath was attempting to stand, his exertion against the Kessek and the blood he'd continued to lose since had sapped his strength. His first few attempts to stand just winded him, and when he finally stood, his legs shook before he steadied himself. Elisa's support helped, but he could not rely on her too much without hurting her, and that was unacceptable.

And the walk ahead of them was long.

[morphitudinous]

Billy had been frozen to the spot for far too long, shock giving way to illness and illness giving way to endless calculations. If they could easily brutalize Goliath---there would be nothing he could do, even morphed. It was likely that even the entire team wouldn't have been able to make a difference. Any interference would've needed a less direct tactic, and there were others working on that.

Elisa's visible desperation finally startled him into action. He darted forward, offering himself as a second support. Ducking under Goliath's injured arm as gently as possible was proving to be difficult, but he eventually secured it.

"Yeah. And---and if not, we've made mechanical limbs and parts before. It might need some magical assistance to work with you, but I'm sure we can." He hated how frightened he sounded.

[prodigalfirelord]

At some point, drawn by the noise and the commotion, Zuko had arrived in time to see his best buddy puny student smacked to the ground by an alien thug several times his size.

He didn't stick around to risk getting de-handed himself, and managed to find a doctor right about when the commotion ceased.

"You can probably figure it out from here."

He hung around in case Hiccup needed carrying to the Medbay.

[not_the_philistine]

With both Billy and Elisa to lean on, he was able to walk, but slowly.

When he groaned, it wasn't out of pain, but out of a vague sense of distaste for the idea of a mechanical replacement. Maybe he could get a sword mounted, instead.

"Someone - will need to tend to Hiccup."

Preferably not one of the people supporting him right now - but he didn't want to know that someone had suffered needlessly trying to help him, and gone unhelped.

[couldputitback]

Faiza took one look at the situation and nodded. Luckily, she also had a head for names. "Please, Ms. Maza, Mr. Cranston, keep Goliath's injured arm above the level of his heart. You have the hand, yes?" She bent to look at Hiccup's eyes, checking how bad the concussion was. "I believe your medical file says that you're magical, Goliath?" She'd listen to whoever answered, though. It was going to play into her triage. "Mr. Haddock, I'm going to need you to stay awake and with us, all right?"

[boobhat]

"I can prob'ly make it to Medbay with a little help. Just worry about Goliath right now."

A lost limb was way more serious than a knock to the head, especially if he was still conscious, and for Goliath's sake, he hoped they could get it reattached. Life without a limb wasn't the worst but there were times it could be horribly inconvenient.

Hiccup looked to Zuko. "Think you can give me a hand?" Then he winced. "And let's also just pretend I didn't use the most awkward, insensitive wording possible right there. I'm blaming the head injury."

It was convenient.

"I'll try not to throw up on you," he promised Zuko.

People let me tell you 'bout my best friend~

[prodigalfirelord]

Zuko loops Hiccup's arm around his shoulder and hoists him up and on his way. "I'll try not to punch you if you do."

He's a warm-hearted person, all right.

[couldputitback]

"Don't let him sleep until somebody has a better look at him," Faiza warned Zuko. "And thank you." She bowed her head to him, then turned back to Goliath. Hiccup was conscious and coherent, which was good enough for her right now. Which meant that she could concentrate on the gargoyle.

[night_shift]

They were making very slow progress, but at least they were making progress in the right direction. And, even as Billy suggested the possibility of mechanical replacements, a doctor appeared on the scene. Goliath’s distaste was understandable but Elisa, for her part, was more interested in making sure he survived until nightfall. They’d deal with whatever happened after that when it happened.

“We’ve got the hand,” she confirmed. She was holding it carefully, cradled in the arm that wasn’t helping to support Goliath. “What about the blood loss?”

[morphitudinous]

Billy lifted Goliath's bad arm over his head as carefully as he could---he had to stand tall to get it above the gargoyle's heart level, but he could do it.

"I think Faiza can stop that, right?" He had vague inklings about where to find or make replacement blood, but Faiza would know more about that than he did.

[couldputitback]

"I can't replace the blood," she replied, her powers already starting to react to the injury, the aura coming up around her hands. "But I can definitely stop it. I might be able to go one better, though, if you can place the hand against the wound." Which would hurt for a moment, but Goliath's body knew it was meant to be part of it. That would help.

[morganknight]

"I think this might be a job for two, then." Morgan snapped open his case of acupuncture needles as he stepped up, though he didn't move to pull any out yet. "I can handle the blood loss and -- well, tell me what you want to handle, let me put it that way," he said sidelong to Faiza.

His fingers twitched on the case, but he held himself back till he got the okay. Too many cooks and broth, after all.

[not_the_philistine]

In the meantime, the patient in question was slowly internalizing the knowledge that without all this help, magical and otherwise, he was facing his own mortality in ways even he had not faced it before.

He dropped to his knees again to accommodate the heights of the humans who were helping him. Elisa was a little busy, what with managing his severed hand, but it seemed so important that he tell her exactly what he was thinking as soon as he possibly could. He touched her hair with his uninjured, bloody hand, speaking softly and with great effort.

"I swore I'd always be there for you -"

[night_shift]

"You're not going anywhere," she said and, although she tried to speak firmly, her voice shook a little. There were tears in her eyes for a moment, but she ignored them fiercely. She even ignored the hand on her hair, resting her own hand over it for only a moment before pulling away to follow Faiza's instructions. "We'll talk about this later."

If they could stop the bleeding, there would be time to worry about transfusions later. If they didn't stop it, there wouldn't be time for anything at all. She held the severed hand against the bloody stump, looking up at Faiza expectantly.

[couldputitback]

That was all that Faiza had been waiting for. "This is going to be gross," she apologized as the power took hold of Goliath's arm and hand, though not Elisa's. Thankfully, as Elisa wasn't hurt, her powers didn't even notice the woman.

Goliath's hand and forearm came apart, though the gargoyle would feel none of it. Faiza concentrated, the newness of gargoyle body structure pushing at her own powers. She pushed them back, working to put seal everything back the way that it was meant to be. Goliath's body knew how it was meant to go together, she just had to trust in that.

Even so, it took a minute before everything collapsed back together, looking almost as good as new, other than a wide scarring band around the wrist. Faiza dropped her hands, swaying a bit before she shook her head to clear it. "I think...I think that did it. I'm sorry, I've never used my powers on someone of your physiology before. It's usually much faster."

[morphitudinous]

For a moment, Billy wasn't sure whether to be more worried about Faiza or Goliath. He'd seen her work before, so that wasn't quite new, but it was still...fascinating. He hoped he wasn't offending Goliath with the fascination with his arm's innards.

He looked up to confirm that everything was all right.

[morganknight]

He stayed back, fingers still tapping on his case. Impatient to help though he was, he knew perfectly well the consequences of acting without an all-clear after that display could be far more harmful than those of waiting.

[couldputitback]

Faiza shook herself and smiled, nodding to Billy. She was fine. No worries at all.

Then she turned to Morgan. "My apologies, Mr. Solus. You're safe to do what you need to, now. I would like Mr. Goliath to be seen to in the medical bay as well, but anything we can do to help now would be best." After all, the gargoyle had lost a lot of blood. Her own powers couldn't change that.

[morganknight]

"Solus?" Morgan said with a distracted nod as he stepped forward, reaching one hand out to hover half an inch from Goliath's chest.

"Don't worry," he said with a reassuring smile. "Believe it or not, I've actually done this sort of work on a gargoyle before. I lived in a pretty weird place for a while."

All the meridians he expected were in place, along with some extra ones he immediately identified as ones related to the wings, and thus academically interesting but irrelevant for his purposes. He half-lidded his eyes, attention split between his vision and his other senses, then tapped a spot on Goliath's chest a couple of inches to the right of his breastbone. Before the sensation of the tap could fade, he quickly and painlessly inserted the first of his acupuncture needles. It was a diversion from his usual methods, but he figured that a patient not expecting acupuncture needed a little extra buffer of tolerance for the procedure.

So on he went, inserting needles down that line of the body for a foot or so before moving to the other side of his chest to complete the symmetry. Through the acupuncture, he manipulated Goliath's chi -- not a transfusion so much as a hyperacceleration of the gargoyle's natural replenishment of blood, with Morgan's own chi taking the place of the matter and energy Goliath's body ought to need to sustain the pace.

While he had that in hand, he also tweaked the meridians to flush out accumulated waste and toxins from the bloodstream, stabilize his cardiopulmonary functions, and generally clean up the resulting mess.

(Of course, if one really wanted to be technical, all Morgan was actually doing was imposing a reality more to his liking over the one everyone else had agreed on through sheer force of will. Everything else, right down to the underlying philosophy, was just trappings and props. But why overcomplicate by thinking in those terms?)

Satisfied at last with his work, he removed the needles swiftly and surely, replacing them in the acupuncture case, which he then flicked a little tab on the outside of so that a bright-red slash now showed when he closed it. A reminder to disinfect.

"I wouldn't advise donating blood for a couple of days, but I think you can safely be sanguine about your chances," he said wickedly.

[not_the_philistine]

"I meant it," Goliath went on, still focused on Elisa as Faiza worked her magic on his hand. He exhaled in a near-laugh. "But I am not showing it well."

He gazed in dazed wonder at his restored hand, frowning at the scar that encircled his wrist. Would stone sleep take care of that?

He frowned briefly as Morgan began his work, mulling over his words. "You have met my kind before - ?" before the magic took effect, restoring much of Goliath's sense of wellbeing, if not removing the shock from his system.

He didn't have time to thank them. With one last glance at his scarred wrist, the gargoyle turned suddenly to stone, though the sun was still set in the City.

[night_shift]

It was a strange sight, but Elisa tried to focus on Goliath’s face rather than Faiza’s actions. She was too worried to dwell on the impressive magic that the healer was using to help him, although she did react to Morgan’s comment on gargoyles, looking up with some surprise when he stepped forward. He’d met them before?

Whether he had or not, his work with the needles did the trick. Even before the stone sleep claimed him, Goliath had started to look better and, since he was in no position to thank them, Elisa did it for him.

“Thank you,” she said, speaking quietly and then repeating it more loudly, “All of you.”

She didn’t doubt that they’d saved his life as well as his hand. Without their efforts, he might not have survived long enough to get to sleep.