Broken Stride

Stab Wounds and Mana Crystals

Cassian couldn't really remember when—or why—he'd fallen unconscious, but when he found himself drifting back to awareness it was to a strange buzzing in his ears. Like water washing over him, a chill crept up his body, starting at his feet and surging upwards—growing in intensity until it reached his chest. Suddenly he was drowning, choking on salt water and blood in a dark abyss.

Sinking as the black waves crashed over him, pulling at his clothes—his hair—dragging him down.

Down.

Down.

Choking as someone held him down and laughed. Pain bloomed in his chest as he found himself upright, retching as a metallic tang filled his mouth.

"whoa, whoa easy kiddo—don't get up," A woman's voice sounded in his ears as a swarm of purple entered his vision and suddenly he found himself being pushed down into something soft.

Purple? Wasn't Yuri's hair brown? Wait, where was he again? He'd been at some club fighting Bloodrain and then. . .

"Shit, what time is it?" Cassian tried to sit up again, much to the chagrin of the woman.

"Sit. You're going to tear out your stitches," the woman huffed, shoving him back down against the bed.

Stitches? What stitches? Cassian blinked at the woman confused.

How could he have gotten stitches? He wasn't in a hospital—and Red-Eye had said they were going to the vilzone. Ah, that must be it. He was in the vilzone, but who was this woman? He squinted through the blur in his vision as the woman returned to a chair next to the bed.

The woman in question had purple hair pulled back in a messy bun with two thick strands framing her face. It was probably dyed judging by the fact that her roots were showing through as black. She had several piercings, including snake bites and a bridge piercing, as well as a thin line tattoo running down her chin and chest, disappearing under her shirt. Speaking of—she looked to be wearing some sort of green medical coat over a cropped shirt that revealed several pale scars scattering her left arm and most of her stomach. Her other arm had a floral sleeve tattoo ending at a scar right below her elbow. From what Cassian could tell, she didn't look like a typical villain.

"What?" the woman glanced at him from behind her hand as she attempted to flick on a pink lighter to light the cigarette in her mouth.

"Sorry, I'm just confused. Who are you?"

"Ah, right. We haven't met—" the woman took a long drag of her cigarette as she returned the lighter to a pouch attached to her hip—"Name's Diana. I'm the reason you're still alive, no thanks to that idiot Driver."

". . .You're not a villain?"

"Astute observation."

Cassian frowned. He could tell he wasn't going to get much more of an answer from this person. In any case, he had to get home—well, he'd have to find Driver first, but then he had to go home.

"The blood I gave you took well enough, but I wouldn't recommend moving around too much for a while. Kinda surprised you're up this fast though, considering how long you were dead."

"Wait, I was dead?!" Cassian gaped at Diana. Surely he'd just heard wrong, right?

"You were for about three minutes, yeah," Diana paused to take another drag of smoke," I don't know what Driver was thinking, sending a kid like you after Bloodrain of all people."

"Hey, I'm not a kid! I'm at least 18!" Cassian huffed, wincing as the movement shot a spark of pain up his side.

"Ah, those pain meds are probably starting to wear off, huh? Not surprising—it's been about three hours since I gave 'em to ya."