《 Skip a Beat 》

When things get worse

"No!"

Tina didn't move from her position, kneeling over his mangled figure, sprawled on the ground.

Her yelp attracted Theseus' attention from across the arena, who had just disarmed another acolyte. He sprinted over, sensing Tina's alarm.

"I- Tina... what is i-"

She looked up at him, more tears streaming from her eyes, but stayed silent.

"Oh... oh no. Oh no, nonononono..."

Theseus saw his little brother's state, eyes closed and lying on his back, right leg a torn, bloody mess and multiple cuts across his face. Only Merlin knew where else he'd been hurt.

"What ha-" he noticed Grindelwald's stunned figure lying on the floor nearby, and his expression changed. Grindelwald had gone for his brother.

His insides were boiling with anger, but he schooled his face into neutrality. Flicking his wand at the dark wizard, he muttered a spell and a pair of gleaming silver handcuffs snaked around Grindelwald's wrists.

Theseus swished his wand again and performed some kind of assistance spell, and an auror apparated into the arena a couple moments later. He scurried over, his eyes growing wide at the dark wizard, immobile on the floor. Then at Newt.

The weedy little auror (he looked rather young... and very skinny) vigorously nodded his head, piecing together what happened.

"Oh... woah. Okay. Right. Yeah... yeah I'll- um... I'll go get Travers."

And he disapparated, taking Grindelwald's transiently immobile figure with him.

Theseus exhaled and shot around to Tina's side, dropping by Newt's mauled body. They swapped glances.

"Is... is he-" Tina broke off at Theseus shaking his head, frowning.

"I can't tell," he choked out.

Dread washed over him. Why couldn't he have been here earlier? Just a minute would have helped. He could've saved his brother, he could've stopped Grindelwald from hurting him, he could've-

Theseus shook his head again. The girl he'd met earlier... well, he technically hadn't met her, but he'd seen Newt speaking to her, and any friend of Newt's was a friend of his. Theseus heard him call her Tina, so he assumed that was her name.

Tina was watching him.

"He needs a healer. Now."

Theseus blinked. The girl was right. He did. Urgently. Her voice surprised him. He didn't expect her to sound so headstrong, so bold... she reminded him of Leta.

She was still staring at him. There was concern in her eyes. It made him wonder how close they were.

Theseus ran his eyes over the damage again. It was unlikely that it could be fixed. He didn't care. He'd make them fix it. The look in Tina's eyes told him that she would, too.

Light footsteps sounded behind the pair, and they simultaneously jerked their heads up, worried that an acolyte was poised to strike behind them. It wasn't an acolyte. There were none left conscious, Tina realised with a slight relief pulsing through her. It was Queenie, with Leta and Jacob on her trail. All three sped up when they caught a glimpse of who Theseus and Tina were kneeling over.

Jacob stopped a couple metres away when he saw his leg, Queenie following suite. She blanched, all the colour draining from her face. Leta saw it the same time as she did and hurried closer. She'd dealt with blood before- never this much, but she worked in the ministry. They were hauling through bloodied and bruised aurors all the time.

She knelt down to Theseus' right, trying not to touch the blood pooled around Newt. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tina shakily stand and heard- heard her inhale a rattly breath.

"Aw no! No, this can't be..." Jacob's voice trailed off from behind her.

Leta started talking quietly to her husband.

Tina shuffled over to Queenie, who still looked a bit pale. A cut on her neck was sending blood sliding down her shoulder, staining her dress. Queenie snapped out of her trance and wrapped her arms around her, letting her older sister sniffle into her dress sleeve.

Tina hardly ever cried. The last time Queenie saw her cry was at their parents' funeral. She had cried too. Nobody there hadn't cried, but the Goldstein sisters cried the most. They were alone in the world, and nobody would help them from there on. Until last year, when her older sister brought two peculiar men home. She'd never admit it, but they both knew it had been the best day of Tina's life. Queenie's, too. They were the two people they cared about most in the world, bar each other, of course.

And now one of them was gone.

Queenie hoped desperately that he hadn't. She could see that Tina did too, but the chance was slim. She could see him from where she was standing; he had gone completely still. He wasn't breathing.

At that moment, Leta stood up and disapparated.

Tina slowly let go of Queenie and Jacob snapped his attention away from the sisters. Theseus turned to face them. He was still kneeling on the floor, his hands stained red. He sniffled twice, weakly cleared his throat and managed to choke out "She's... she's gone to get help. We're not sure if-"

"Don't say it," Jacob interrupted.

Theseus didn't say it, but they all knew what it was anyway.

We're not sure if he's alive.

Sorry, but I did say it was a little angsty.

Ok! Two updates one day after another! In the middle of the week!

I just want to say, thank you for all the lovely comments! I literally just published chapter 1 yesterday, and there are already 53 views! WOAH! I read so many kind comments from you guys telling me how good it was and asking me to update, so here you go. It makes me so happy that you're enjoying this!

Also, I just want to address the fact that I don't want to kill my smol cinnamon roll ^^ so of course Newt will live. You could probably tell anyways. But atm, he is not breathing. OH NOEEEEE SOMEONE GET THIS BEAN SOME HELPPPPP

That 'weedy little auror' kinda sounds like me as an auror XD I just realised

One more thing...

I was re- watching FBTCOG (as you do) and I paused it and noticed something and I'm too shook to not say something about it. Notice, that Tina's wearing lipstick throughout the film, and it's applied so perfectly (no, seriously, how does she do it?), like, completely on point and dark. BUT! In the scene where they're in the amphitheatre and Grindelwald's just about to make his speech, she asks Newt 'What are you going to do?' and I paused it and noticed...

Her lipstick is completely smudged and faded over her top lip.

JKR HAVE WE MISSED SOMETHING IMPORTANT HFJLDSG;NHF;KGHSF;FNKS;GJ TELL US WHAT HAPPENED FDHL;gndk;gn I NEED ANSWERS SKGHLSDG; SPILLLLLLLLL

AAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAIEIEEIEIAAEIAEIAEIEIAIEEIAIAEEIAAAAAAAAAAIEIAEAAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAEIAEIEAIIEIAEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

or it could just be

you know

she was too busy trying to fend off the world's most dangerous villian and accidentally smudged her lipstick =_=

Cateye992, out!