Cold Scales

by Konatra

Loss

It was dark.

A pure, infinite, eternal dark.

A void of nothing was around the dragoness. Her mere existence was only a drop to a sea of evil. She could not move, not see, not even think past enough cognition to know that she at least existed.

This was the deep recesses of her mind, something that she currently had no power over, trapped in her own head.

The force around her could number in the millions if not billions and yet were all one single being. A hivemind of malice that at that moment all locked their attention onto her speck of existence. The presence in one harmonious move all pooled together to strike at the absolutely defenseless girl. She would be consumed and not a thing would be left of her.
Her mind and body would be taken and used for its own devices, a uncontrollable demon with the full body of a dragon would cause absolute chaos on the land.

Then something else stood in front of her, a presence slightly bigger than her own guarded her against the sea before her. Before the void could strike her guardian struck first at the impossible foe in one powerful attack of will. There was no movement, no magic or source of energy. The guardian by its own inner power and soul forced the evil out of its shared home.
And just like that it was gone, absolutely destroyed, gone from her mind. Spines felt an impossible weight off her subconscious, she was free. For the first time in a while, she felt truly at peace.

The bright presence of her guardian encompassed her form, slowly thought returned as her mind began healing from the invader's corruption. She felt safe, she felt cherished by its warmth.

Then it let her go as if it was it who was keeping her from waking just to hold onto her for a time. As she fell back into conscious something in her wanted to stay with her savior for just a bit longer. She reached out but it was too late.

___

'CLEAR' Spines felt a powerful jolt of electricity surge through her body. her insides screamed at the intensity but her mind still refused to get her up.
"I'm getting mild brain waves here!" A distant voice shouted. Followed by another "CLEAR!"

Now fully awake she felt two pads press hard on her chest and seemingly inject lightning into her core. She staggered to get up, two pairs of arms forcefully pushed her back down. She took an aimless swipe at one of the hazy figures but couldn't seem to make contact no matter how hard she tried. Bright lights blinded her and the noises all around dazed her. Again she tried to escape by rolling over.
'General Spines you are safe!' Instantly the tension in her body relaxed upon hearing the electronic voices she was accustomed to.

Breathlessly she spat out. "What happened?" She felt numb in several areas and her vision wasn't quite back yet. "Is the town safe?"

"The attack was a success with a 100% enemy mortality rate and seven Unity casualties." While hearing about her dead soldiers sadden her she couldn't help but feel an unfathomable relief that her family survived. 'The barrier is working at peak efficiency and our kill squads are sifting through the forest in search of Spawn remnants as we speak.' Slowly the two medical androids helped her up to sit as she tried her best to get her heart rate down. She couldn't quite figure out why but she felt wrong as if she were somehow lighter than before.

As she tried to piece together her memories of the battle a thought occurred to her. "...I think I got hurt pretty bad back on the battlefield." She shakily breathed out, a dawning reality set in.

The medical units paused for a moment, seemingly calculating a proper and safe response. "...in order to achieve victory over the Spawn you made several choices that have left... several parts of you destroyed."

Destroyed, that word made her tremble. She wanted to see a mirror or something but as she tried to stand she found that she could not reach the floor. Her vision started to focus again in a rather camera-like way to see the ground at a normal floor to table height...both her legs were missing. Cut off before the knees there was nothing besides thin black plates that closed off the wound. Spines gasped in horror and as she tried to touch them to see if this wasn't some sick illusion she found her right hand missing as well as the entire left arm with the same metal plates installed.

Silently she choked as the medical units softly held her in place in fear of her falling. "...Oh my gods." That was all she could whisper.

"Your body was found in a tarnished state, your left arm self removed and cauterized, right hand blown to pieces from a point-blank ordinance volley. The unit to her right explained. "Your legs were both injected with the blood of the Clot Spawn that quickly corrupted your limbs. Were it not for the fast-thinking of a Unity sword unit cutting off your legs after noticing the purple veins on them you would have been lost to us on that field."

She nodded at this information as she continued to stare at what she lost. She also noted that phrasing, not 'dead' but 'lost'.

"Even after that emergency amputation a portion of void blood entered your nervous system and you remained in a catatonic state after stabilizing you. We lack the equipment to flush out corruption from one's system so it was up to your own immune system to fight off the infection, thankfully you pulled through moments before we were forced to euthanize." She twitched slightly but she knew the reason for that path, it was for the best her body not to be a tool to the Void.

The broken Queen began to get back her bearings. "A-anything else?"

"Exactly 27 smaller surgeries were taken place that spans from patch jobs to synthetic tissue transplants. Most of your internal organs remained intact but you had a ruptured bladder we removed and as a result, replaced your kidneys replaced with a Mark III cyber implant that will perform the same tasks at a more efficient standard. We will send you a detailed report on the significance and procedure of every surgery that has taken place."

'Kidneys....replaced.' This all still seemed unreal to her. "...Thank you both, you saved my life...may I have your names?"

They nodded, being two units made during the old age of Tendrix. "We work as one unit with two bodies to better coordinate surgery, we are one and we go as Heilmittel." They bowed in tandem. Spines smiled for the first time in a while and then they got her up and sat her down on a floating chair. Reminded of her current state she couldn't help but frown.

'I can't fight anymore, I can't be of use anymore, I can't protect anyone anymore.' These rapid thoughts took over her mind. That and the lingering reality of living without appendages, that just made her want to lie down and cry.

"You have a visitor." Heilmittel broke her depressed trance as they hovered her out of the medical room, in a hall of metal the sight of white and red focused her eyes.

Solaris sat at attention, eyes staring at her intensely. There was a powerful silence that took over the scene.

And like a waterfall hot tears began falling down the King's face. "...My poor innocent little girl..." He gasped with the look of agony Spines could not describe. Like a drunkard, he staggered over to her and embraced his daughter. "Look at how they massacred my girl!" The Kin- her father began bawling. A powerful and haunting bellow that spread the feeling of pain and misery.

Spines was silent and motionless for a moment and she too joined her father in his agony for her state. Her cries were more silent but conveyed a deeper understanding of exactly just what she had lost.

Comments

[RanBro]

Damn that's all I can say is damn God fucking damn it