When You're a Mystery Kid

Aftershock

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters featured here.

The Psychonauts arrived exactly twenty minutes after Lili called for backup.

First to arrive was medical aid. They secured the team, bundled them up in blankets and gave them some warm drinks, and tended to the many, many injuries the Mystery Kids had sustained. Coraline's wound was properly stitched up, the cut on Dipper's palm were bandaged, the blackening bruise on Mabel's gut was given some kind of treatment ointment, and Raz was made to run a few tests to make sure he's not concussed. Lili came out of the ordeal - on the outside, at least - with only a few minor bruises, so she was among the first to be back on her feet. She busied herself with pacing, and thinking, and essentially anything to prevent her from being idle.

Everytime her mind drew a blank, everytime she closed her eyes, she saw flashes of those horrible, horrible things from her nightmare hallucination.

Agents and investigators arrived a bit later, arriving in jets by the dozen. They set up a perimeter around the village, which Lili would say was a waste of time for a village literally in the middle of nowhere. Lili gave them a brief rundown of what happened, especially about the... state of the villagers. The agents were methodical; they swept through the village, house by house, block by block, lining the streets with filled body bags. Dozens of them.

Lili was silently grateful the medic was stationed on the outskirts of the village so the group missed most of it. She'd accidentally caught a glimpse of one of the bodies being moved out. One more thing that'll show up in her night terrors.

It didn't help the others were deathly silent, in the one instance where she'd actually wish they'd talk more. Beside her, Raz was unnaturally silent. She knew him long enough to know that he will partly blame himself for this, and it physically hurt her to see that. Norman had basically gone catatonic. Now knowing what happened to the village, it wasn't hard to see why. Neil had been clinging to Norman all this time, maybe to comfort himself, maybe to comfort Norman, or maybe both. Dipper hung his head low, eyes on the bandaged cut on his palm. A surface level peek of his thoughts revealed that he's wallowing in guilt, as he should be. Mabel was empty of tears by now, but sometimes she still sobbed and shivered. Wybie stared off into empty space, softly muttering curses to himself. Coraline fidgeted with her inactivated baton, her thoughts a million miles from here.

Lili sighed. Not that she could blame them. A lot happened. A lot needed to be processed. Lili's only hope was for them all to be able to pull through. The Crimson Conclave was their fault, their responsibility.

Although, maybe no one else needed to know that.

The Mystery Kids were sitting silently on a bunch of gurneys and makeshift chairs in a loose circle when they were approached. Lili wasn't at all surprised to see Sasha and Milla walking towards them from the distance. Sasha was unreadable as ever, but Milla was clearly horrified by what had happened here.

Raz and Lili perked up. The others, not so much.

"What happened here?" Sasha asked, his tone even but urgent.

"A bunch of vampires happened, that's what," Coraline muttered, barely looking up at Sasha.

"Vampires?" Milla reeled back, an understandable gut reaction. Her eyes flitted over to her partner. "Sasha, you said their mission involved going after StrexCorp."

"It was," Coraline answered instead. Her hand gingerly rubbed the bandage covering the cut on her side. "This vampire thing caught us off guard too."

Sasha and Milla stared at one another for a moment. Lili could vaguely sense a conversation between them. "How many exactly is 'a bunch'?" Sasha pressed.