Closed Captioning (G/t)

Impale, Exhale

(A/N: For all intents and purposes, let's just say that the photo for this excerpt probably isn't SFW. 

It's on DA:  https://www.deviantart.com/imperial-radiance/art/Impale-Exhale-a-picture-838699613 

It's on Twitter: https://twitter.com/regal_gleam/status/1284886241364848640)

"Senna!"

Bodies can have varied reactions to stimuli, post-mortem. Revitalization usually wasn't one of them. Screaming had never been on record. Med school hadn't prepared him for that.

It was meant to be a simple scan for Marc, the medical examiner: the usual, somber routine during a tragedy. This one hit closer to home than normal, though. This was the result of a city-wide ambush, targeting one specific stratum of people and leaving many of them husks of their past selves, some literally.

The utter depravity of attacking a population able to fit in another's palms on one of their most precious holidays. The message had been weaved through every top story all week.

Many at the Intelligence Agency had taken off that day. Tristan, one of the would've-been-celebrating agents on one of Marc's teams by extension, chose to work, anyway, and, from it, had been barraged with much skepticism from a partner of how important the day really was. No one expected the events that would follow clocking out, and Tristan being found in a hideaway by one of their supers the following day, complemented with a partner's apology, proved how deep the calamity sunk in.

But while Tristan had the overarching task of finding who did it all and why with the others, Marc's focus, like always, was to research for the how and the to whom in the shadows, particularly those who couldn't act for themselves, let alone breathe.

The piles of corpses and faceless viscera grew more uncomfortable as their numbers grew, and the more innocent their demographics became with time helped nothing. Marc's current set involved the deceased from a university dorm. Damsels as beautiful as dolls and, from his point-of-view, sized like them, too. All trying to better themselves or just find who they were on a day of freedom: all dreams and future days vanished in a bang. Multiple.

The cadaver of the hour, brought in inside a separate crate rather than the typical bag, appeared to be an act of impromptu anarchy. Bite-sized bullets were traded for parts worthy of a toolbox. With their spearing looking like a clean shot, Marc had some relief in it being a quick blow to the beauty. Nonetheless, this woman surely had more to her than an arm-sized, metal nail through her abdomen, and the first way to learn how in a timely fashion was testing her DNA in the national database.

Multiple stomas good for gene collection are scattered across a body – mouths, ear canals, et cetera – but the most obvious one still held a metal spike. Marc raised the skewered soul with a hand to bring the nail upright for swift removal. But, whether from inadvertent strength or an otherworldly delay, it barely being nudged shot completely new life into its wielder, displaying its strength – her strength – to carry on with a bloodcurdling scream.

"Senna! S-Senna!?"

Her calls repeated until Marc retracted his free hand, and the dear's determination faded with it. His heart stopped, fearing her life would disappear before his eyes. It was a different sensation than that from seeing her impalement on film, but that pause was only for a moment. Confusing relief filled the void, seeing a pulse from her come through the sensors interlaced in the tabletop on which she was propped.

So many thoughts filled Marc's head, in turn, the priority being to call for a hospital. Despite his licenses and degree, no tools that could get her in better health were with him.

Better health for her. A life for those that were lost. Enough time, at least, for whom she appeared to yearn for to come.

"Senna..." Marc sighed, feeling the weight of all that word contained.

Senna. Senna Lache. Tristan's right-hand-lady. Their team's top asset that wasn't of a military background. She who had months of time-off earned was finally on a sabbatical off-the-grid.

A sister to Cassia, a young forensics student of big dreams in a big hand with a big nail through her belly and back.