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“Murderer!” Miorine stumbles back as Suletta reaches for her with that bloody hand of hers. The hand, like Aerial’s, which is stained red with the liquified remains of a terrorist’s body. Suletta takes a step forward, and Miorine falls down to the ground. Her father’s stretcher slowly drifts away and she grabs it, pulls it behind her instinctively as she slides herself backwards.
The person in front of her had the same face, the same voice, as her groom, yet acted so unlike her that Miorine entertains the thought that it really is a different Suletta for just a brief moment. Yet no, that was just as impossible, more impossible even, then the apparent truth of Suletta Mercury. That she was a killer, a remorseless killer.
“It’s alright, I saved you, you’re safe now Miss Miorine.” Suletta reassures her. “Even your dad is safe.” She adds, looking at Delling. “You don’t need to be afraid.”
“Get away!” Miorine yells, and Suletta blinks, confused.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Miss Miorine.” She laughs lightly, as if she and Miorine were joking around. Miorine feels her heart pounding in her chest, for all the wrong reasons that it should be around Suletta. “I would never do that.” Suletta continues to try and reassure her. Suletta takes a step forward, and Miorine can hear the wet squelch of the viscera Suletta had been standing in, that now soaked her pilot suit. “Or is it, is it because of this glove?” Suletta asks, raising said bloodstained hand. “It’s so messy, right. Let me get this cleaned up”
With childish annoyance, Suletta tries to shake off the blood from her glove, only for her efforts to spread the blood around more than it was already. Miorine watches as it gets on Suletta’s face, and she doesn’t flinch. It gets on Aerial, it gets on the floor, the wall. It gets on her father, and she can feel the liquid, still warm, hit her in the face again.
“Oops, sorry Miss Miroine.” Suletta has taken off the glove now, revealing her unblemished hand underneath, though even that is soon stained by a stray glob of viscera. She lets the glove go, leaving it hanging in the low gravity of the part of the station they’re in. “Let me get that, I really am clumsy.” Suletta reaches forward again, and Miorine cannot stand it anymore.
She screams, a blood curdling scream that even makes her father stir from his pained daze, groaning and cracking an eye open. Delling stirs a bit more at seeing his daughter’s face covered in blood. Suletta flinches away, stays frozen a few paces from Miorine.
“Don’t touch me, get away from me, murderer!” Miorine shouts desperately.
“I saved you though.” Suletta’s voice wavers ever so slightly. “I saved y-“
“You did, and you took a man’s life, we’re covered in his blood and his gu-“ Miorine suddenly feels her lunch jump into her throat, and she pukes over the edge of the catwalk, clutching the railing like her life depended on it. It’s acidic, disgusting, and tears sting her eyes as her lunch goes spilling out into the void.
She hears the squelch of Suletta’s boots behind her, and she raises a hand to stop Suletta from approaching.
“It’s alright, Miss Miorine. We’ll get washed up and it’ll be alright.” Suletta continues to say in a downright cheerful tone.
“How can you say that, how can you smile?” Miorine wipes her mouth, though it smears blood across her face, enough to make her stomach twist again.
“It’s alright, because I gained two, I saved you, and all our friends are safe, and your dad, and mom. So, it’s alright.” Suletta repeats. “Once we clean up, you won’t tell me to go away anymore, right?” Suletta asks again, her voice wavering.
“No, Suletta. If I see you smiling like this, acting as if nothing is wrong… get away from me.” Miorine takes another step back, her hand reaching into her pocket for Mister Cool. She had been clutching it earlier, because it was Suletta’s gift to her, her reminder of Suletta. She grips it again, pulling it out.
“I promised though, I promised I would stay by your side!” Suletta pleads, another step forward for Suletta, a step back for Miorine. She trips again, this time over the railing. Miorine starts to slip backwards. “Miss Miorine!”
Suletta grabs her, the stench of death overwhelming Miorine’s senses, and with surprising, desperate strength she brings her palm across Suletta’s cheek. There’s a deafening clap as Miorine strikes Suletta and Suletta recoils, dragging Miorine back over the railing and then stepping away from her. Mister Cool spirals between them, unharmed despite being in Miorine’s palm when she slapped Suletta. Suletta's eyes focus on it, and she understands what it means. She understands the fear, the hatred, in Miorine’s eyes, is directed at her. The same expression that Miorine had when Suletta had been avoiding her, amplified by a hundred times. Mixed with that fear of what Suletta was.
She would lose Miorine.
Through her tearstained eyes, Miorine sees Suletta’s smile crumble, sees her look around with dawning horror. Good, she thinks, let her hurt. Let her hurt because she needs to be hurt, to understand. To stop smiling in this situation.
“It’s alright, I can… move forward, mom said, it’s okay to fight as long as I can save everyone. Even if you don’t want me after this, hah.” Suletta sounds like she is trying to convince herself, rather than convince Miorine now. Her voice is wavering, and Miorine can see light return to those ocean blue eyes as they tear up. “I’m alright.” The smile tries to make a return, but it is even more fake than before.
“If you think this is alright, that I’m alright, that you’re alright, then I don’t want you at my side.” Miorine declares in a shaky voice. The two stare at each other as the station creaks and groans, still under strain from the vicious attack. Suletta grabs Mister Cool with a shaky hand.
“Ooooosss,” Delling groans. “Hos…pi…tal…” He stirs, a pained expression on his face, looking at Miorine with glazed over eyes.
“Right.” Miorine nods. “Just, step aside, Suletta.” Miorine tells her. She needed to get her father to a hospital or a doctor or someone who could save him. That was what mattered now.
“Let me help, please.” Suletta does not step aside, and Miorine clenches her fist. She knows that Suletta won’t do anything to retaliate if she pushes her aside. “Even if I will lose you, let me…” Suletta continues. She blocks the hallway, and Miorine steps forward. “I don’t want to be here anymore.” Her voice is small, cracking fully as she starts to shake, hyperventilating. “I can’t…”
Then, suddenly, she grabbed Delling’s stretcher, running with it through the hallways. As long as she can get Miorine’s father somewhere safe, it will be one less thing that Miorine will have to worry about. It will be one final thing for her to do for Miorine. So, Suletta runs, and she can hear Miorine run behind her, trying to catch up to her.
If she continued to run, Suletta realized she would leave Miorine behind. She glances back, seeing Miorine is already starting to fall behind, reaching out desperately for her father’s stretcher. Suletta sighs, slowing down and coming to a halt. She couldn’t leave Miorine alone, despite everything. Despite the fact that Miorine hated her. So, it was alright to make sure that Miorine got to the hospital as well, because even if she didn’t stay away from Miorine, Miorine already wanted her gone. So helping her to the hospital would not make Miorine hate her more than she did already.
Suletta picks Miorine up while Miorine is still too tired, too exhausted both physically and mentally, to do more than try to punch Suletta’s back lightly as she hoists her over her shoulder. Then, Suletta grabs the stretcher again and begins leading it through the hallways.
The plant had a small medical ward, though that had been overwhelmed and a hangar had been hastily turned into a triage center. Thankfully Suletta does not have to wait long for someone she knows, Belmeria Winston, to make her way over to them. She has a cross made out of green tape slapped onto her shoulders, and she surveys the scene, seeing the tears in Suletta’s eyes, the sobs emitting from Miorine.
“Suletta, what happened, is…”
“It’s Mister Rembran… he’s hurt, Miss Miorine and I are…” Suletta chokes out. “No, we aren’t alright.” She manages to say. Belmeria nods, putting a hand on the stretcher and guiding the three of them to a quieter corner of the hangar.
Then, Belmeria leaves with the stretcher, and Suletta and Miorine are left alone. Suletta lets go of Miorine, setting her down against the wall while she herself backs away. The blood on her pilot suit is seeping into it now, against her skin, telling her that it can no longer be ignored. So, she doesn’t ignore it, she tries to rip off her pilot suit, desperately trying to get it off before it strangles her with the stench of blood. The blood that she had fallen into, that she had joked about because if she joked about it, then she wouldn’t have had to think about the fact that the blood came from someone that had been alive a few seconds before.
Miorine is safe, but not alright. Miorine is lost, she’s going to leave her because she’s a murderer, a monster. She had killed someone and convinced herself not to feel anything about it aside from relief that everyone else is alright. She was covered in his blood.
Her tears mix with the blood on her face, and she starts to sob long, hard sobs.
“Please don’t leave me, Miss Miorine. Please don’t leave. At least, get mom, or… or someone else, I don’t want to be alone.” She pleads, though she doesn’t know if Miorine is there or not. She likely already left. Why would she stay around someone who she hates, who she fears, who she has no reason to be around.
“Suletta…” Miorine’s voice is closer than Suletta expects, and she feels Miorine put a hand on her arm, grip it tightly. “Never… never pretend to be alright when you aren’t. Never do that to me, okay?”
“I won’t.” Suletta promises. Though it feels like a hollow promise, because she’ll never be close enough to Miorine again to show her that she was not fine. “Are you… still… going to leave.” She can’t bring herself to look up at where Miorine is, she knows that Miorine is still scared of her, still doesn’t want to see her face stained with blood, so she won’t let Miorine see her like this. She also knows that Miorine doesn’t want to be seen right now.
“No.” Miorine replies softly, through her own tears. She can’t, because she still loves Suletta, and she sees what Suletta had been hiding from her now, that she had been pretending to be alright for her own sake. “I won’t leave you, Suletta. Just, tell me you aren’t alright.”
“I’m not, Miorine, I’m not alright.” Suletta admits. “I always thought that I could go forward to gain two, but… if I lost you, even if you were safe, then I wouldn’t gain two, I’d have just… lost.” Suletta explains slowly. “What have I done?” She buries her head deeper under her arms. “What have I done?” She asks again, as sobs wracked her body. She can feel Miorine crying beside her, the quakes and tremors of her body making Miorine’s hand shake, and Suletta reaches with her bare hand to cover Miorine’s own hand as the two of them cry beside each other. They cannot hold each other tight, as fragile as things were, but they are not running, nor are they moving forward.
It is the best that they can do, at the moment.