I have half a mind, it's cracked and breaking

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

The ragged stump of Ienzo's arm had been a mangled mess. Szayel had carefully trimmed away everything ruined beyond repair, playing conservatively with how much of Ienzo's arm he left behind. He didn't have enough to be useful; all trying to save more of the arm would get anyone would be a higher risk of later complications. In the end, he removed everything left below the shoulder joint, which also gave him enough undamaged skin to cover the amputation wound somewhat tidily. It was still going to be scarred, but at least it wouldn't be twisted and puckered scar tissue on the end of a stump.

The very first thing he'd done, once he'd cut away enough damage to see what he was doing, had been to seal off the blood vessels. Ienzo had lost a lot of blood, and Szayel hadn't needed to get a band around his good arm to know his blood pressure would be dangerously low. Nel had worked on that, feeding drips into his veins and casting curative spells to accelerate his body's own replenishment speed.

Szayel had put aside what he'd removed in a kidney dish, temporarily focused solely on the task at hand. With Lumi hovering over his shoulder, he hadn't expected to get a chance to keep so much sample tissue anyway, but he'd hoped that if he pretended to ignore it then Lumi would also pay it little heed.

Once the obvious wound had been covered Szayel turned to a more detailed examination of Ienzo, a task which required stripping him of most of his clothing. There were parts that seemed as if he'd be bruised and sore, but no other obvious, major injuries seemed apparent, and Szayel couldn't find evidence of any internal injuries that required attending.

Nel carefully applied bandages to Ienzo's arm and up over his shoulder while Szayel cleaned away his things, simply moving them to the back of the infirmary for the time being. He wanted to take the excised tissue and store it, safely, but that would only make things look obvious to his audience. Instead, after moving things out of the way, he returned to Ienzo's bedside, as if he'd only been intending to do that, and gave him a dose of the antidote for the sedatives they'd used.

They needed to see if he was capable of consciousness, after all.

"He's going to need close monitoring," he said, mostly to Nel. "Through the night as well." It might in the least be another chance for him to get his hands on some samples, too.

Comments

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi stayed in the infirmary for the operation. It was fortunate, with all of the excised tissue and general medical gore, that Lumi was not at all squeamish. He lingered in the room, watching Szayel carefully, observing where he put things, even when he didn't want to be noticed putting certain things in specific places.

"I daresay Even will volunteer," he said.

Otherwise, he was quite prepared to stay. He didn't need as much sleep as most, after all, and he could deal with a sleepless night in an infirmary chair in the interests of preventing Szayel getting his paws on information on the Nobody-type Ryoka.

He wondered how Marluxia's meeting with Even had gone. He was a bad tempered sort, so he rather hoped he wasn't in the mood for shooting messengers. Or freezing them. Lumi didn't want to have to kill Even after Nel and Szayel had managed to save Ienzo's life.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel eyed Lumi out of the corner of his eye and adjusted his glasses with one hand. "Even won't be much use," he said, his tone more than a little disparaging. "He's not trained for this, and he's too personally invested."

He looked down at Ienzo, his expression sinisterly thoughtful. "If he begins to deteriorate, he'll need someone that can help on hand." Szayel gave a resigned sigh. "I should start charging you Ryoka for my services. By the hour."

He turned a little, so he could look at Lumi. "Will you allow me to give him a course of antibiotics?" Lumi had flatly refused the same for himself, but gods knew what had done the damage to Ienzo's arm, and how. He'd removed and stitched what he could, but infection was a serious risk, especially with such an open wound.

[declaregamuza]

Nel was too busy checking Ienzo over again after the shot of anti-sedation drugs to launch into arguing with Szayel immediately. Ienzo could do without this at the moment too, she knew, and you'd have to be a fool to think Szayel wasn't acting out of self interest.

It would be good for Ienzo to find a familiar face standing guard over him through the night, too. Even was probably the best candidate there. Certainly better than Marluxia or Lumi.

She half wondered whether Ulquiorra would show his face once Aizen was done with him. He might be staying away for now anyway; there were too many questions about how Ienzo had come to be injured.

"If it's such a burden on you, Szayel," she said, airily, "I can stay."

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi arched an eyebrow at Szayel's first response, but didn't bother to tell him that he wouldn't be there to watch Ienzo, but Szayel himself. He suspected he knew that already. Szayel wasn't stupid, just idiotic.

"I don't think that will fly when he got hurt under the protection of one of you Arrancar," Lumi said, shrugging his shoulders. "Give him the antibiotics."

He highly doubted that Ienzo had an immune system like his and after a wound like that, he would need all the help he could get.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel huffed, giving Lumi a brief, irritated look. "It's a little early to jump to conclusions, isn't it?" he asked, before he turned his attention to Nel. "You should be supporting me, not backing up them," he sneered.

He turned away from them both to go and fetch a vial and a syringe. "I'd say Ienzo owes Ulquiorra his life, personally. If it had been any other Arrancar he was with, it could have taken too long for them to get back here." Not to mention that tail had done surprisingly well as a tourniquet. "So let's not jump to conclusions about who is in whose debt right now."

He turned, drawing the contents of the vial into the syringe and throwing Lumi a glance. "As it stands, two of you owe me your lives." And here they wouldn't even let him obtain samples. It wasn't as if he was asking for much by way of payment.

[declaregamuza]

Nel looked at Szayel as he stalked off, and rolled her eyes. She flashed Lumi a brief, apologetic look. Being in Szayel's presence for an extneded period of time brought out her urge to apologise for every breath he drew.

"Might I remind you who did the actual healing?" she snapped, pointedly. It always annoyed her when Szayel went taking the credit for anyone that successfully walked out of the infirmary when Nel had put in a lot of her own work to make that happen, too. Szayel was a medic, she was a healer, but he seemed to think that the science bit was more important than the magic part when all of his patients would be dead without it.

[thesilentstorm]

Lumi rolled his eyes.

He knew that he probably did owe Szayel a certain debt, but he was of the opinion it was entirely likely that he had paid off that debt tenfold by not killing him every he had annoyed him in the weeks since he had been so kind as to remove that bullet from his chest.

Nel had been responsible for all of his extensive follow-up treatment. While Lumi still considered magic to be somewhat nonsensical, it certainly worked well enough.

"How long before he comes round?" Lumi asked, casting a look at Ienzo's face.

[thechillyacademic]

Even was still shaking with fury as he left the library.

He had gone to have a ... conversation with Aizen which had ended up being less of a conversation and more of a one-sided argument about the incompetence of his underlings. Even didn't care that he was still on a sort of probation within the Clan, in spite of having joined willingly, he didn't care that Aizen was considered to be one of the single most powerful within the Desert Palace and he certainly didn't care if he was overheard.

Aizen had offered him an explanation. The two of them had, on an excursion, run into something entirely unexpected and that unexpected thing had, in short, torn one of Ienzo's arms off. Ulquiorra, his supposed bodyguard, had been apparently unable to fight off the thing, or save his charge in spite of the power he was reputed to have had.

Even made a conscious effort to un-grit his teeth as he strode towards the infirmary, sure that Ienzo's hopefully life-saving surgery would have reached completion by that point. He had left it a little while before seeing Aizen, after all.

The sight that greeted him was what he expected. He was conscious, but ... still dazed from the medication, and the trauma, and his arm was bandaged from the shoulder to where the limb finished abruptly. He looked up at him when he entered, but didn't say anything. Even wasn't even sure if he recognised him or simply responded to the sound and movement of the door being pushed open. Nel was at his bedside, obviously concerned. Lumi stood a little back, arms folded, as though he was on guard duty, and Szayel was hovering.

Even narrowed his eyes at the surgeon and scanned the rest of the room. The signs of an operation were fresh. He glanced again at Lumi, who turned his head just enough for him to follow his gaze to the back of the room, where a dish contained what had been excised from Ienzo's arm.

"Well?" he snapped, not sparing Szayel any of the ire he had shown his boss.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel had plenty of excuses to lurk. It was his infirmary, after all, and he currently had a patient.

He'd taken some readings from Ienzo; blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, general appearance, and marked them on a chart. He'd need to be monitored through the night, checked for brewing infection, or sudden deterioration, but for now the fact that he had his eyes open and was responding was good progress.

He felt the approach of Even's reiatsu before the other Ryoka appeared, clearly in a fury.

"Well what?" he asked, giving Even a cursory once over from his feet to his face and fixing him with a defiantly nonplussed look. He gestured to Ienzo with one hand. "I take it you know what's happened?" he added, unnecessarily. Of course Even knew what had happened; Marluxia had probably toddled off to tell him as soon as he could. "The operation went as well as can be expected. He'll live. For now."

[declaregamuza]

Nel was concerned. She'd talked to Ienzo softly, coaxing him to open his eyes as he came round, reluctantly, but he hadn't said anything in reply yet. He'd co-operated with having his heart rate and blood pressure monitored, and his temperature taken, but he was still dazed.

In shock, she thought, and not the medical kind related to blood loss.

She was relieved when Even showed up. Relieved that it wasn't Marluxia, and relieved that it was someone that cared for Ienzo. Even had near raised him, he'd said, and while Ienzo wasn't the most grateful of wards, there was still that connection.

Of course, Even didn't handle being upset very well. He turned to getting angry, rather than getting upset. She didn't intervene, though, when that anger got directed at Szayel the moment Even walked through the door. Szayel deserved it.

[thechillyacademic]

Even rather thought the question he had injected into the forceful 'well' had been rather obvious. Szayel's flippancy about it irritated him, especially given the circumstances.

He narrowed his eyes at the dish at the back of the room and pointed to Szayel's laboratory, redirecting the look at him instead. Without asking, he headed in that direction, still furious with the entire situation.

On some level, he knew it was wrong to take out his anger at Ulquiorra's incompetence on other Arrancar, but Szayel was practically withholding information about Ienzo purely to be irritating. Even simply wasn't in the mood for that sort of nonsense.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel adjusted his glasses and watched Even as he pointed to the laboratories Szayel kept attached to the infirmary, and then made his way there.

"Has anyone ever told you," he commented, in a falsely amiable tone, "that you look like a cat chewing a lemon?"

Needling Even probably wasn't the smartest thing he could do right now, but Szayel couldn't resist. Even had stormed in with a face like the sky on the thunder plains and started to make demands. Szayel's back was up enough with Lumi's constant presence. All he wanted was to transport his samples to his lab without anyone killing him along the way, was it so much to ask?

He folded his arms and walked after Even, into his own lab, fully prepared to be as belligerently unhelpful as he could manage.

[thechillyacademic]

Even rolled his eyes. People hadn't used those precise words, but the sentiment had been similar with previous insults. Even didn't much care. Especially not right at that moment. He had more important thinks to think about than how he wasn't exactly pleasing to the eye.

In the laboratory, he turned on its owner, looking rather more like a coeurl with a grapefruit for a moment.

"What of Ienzo?" He demanded.

He'd heard the short, flippant version, but he wanted more detail. More information on the injury itself, and what it meant.

[tozasemurcielago]

Ulquiorra was tired in a way he had never known tiredness. It wasn't a physical tiredness that could be resolved with food and rest, it was something else, something infuriatingly intangible that left his limbs feeling like lead. He put it down to the adrenaline leaving his bloodstream after Ienzo had been injured; every action since had been performed on a sort of autopilot.

The Hollow in his head laughed.

Ienzo-san's injury, Aizen-sama's ire, Gin's power, Murciélago's offer. They circled in his head like birds of prey sighting their quarry.

Ulquiorra took it all, all his thoughts, and all he'd seen, and all he'd done, and he pushed it neatly aside and down and out of the way so he could continue to function. So it didn't get the better of him.

The journey back from the Eremite plains had taken less time than the journey there. The route back to the Palace through a Garganta was a well worn one, and Ulquiorra had travelled in silence, mind kept carefully blank so he didn't fall to the temptation to dwell on what he'd seen. Gin had cut the Weapon down so easily, and Ulquiorra had nearly lost his and Ienzo-san's lives to it.

He didn't bother to change again, remaining in his Arrancar uniform as he travelled to the infirmary. Szayel would have done his work by now. Ulquiorra would be able to see the true extent of the damage done.

Knowing Szayel, he would also need someone to rein him in. After all that had happened today, Ulquiorra was not well positioned to serve physical reprimand to another Arrancar. He hoped there would be other Ryoka present to keep Szayel in line.

He banished his mask before he reached the infirmary, and strode through the doors with one hand in his pocket.

[theschemer]

Ienzo had woken up dazed and numb.

His head felt heavy and it ached as if he was either hideously dehydrated or terribly hungover. It was a dull sensation. An unpleasant one, but that was nothing compared to the tingling in the fingers of his left hand. They burned and stung as if he'd been leaning on his arm for long enough to send it dead and then tried to shake feeling back into it, but there was no doing that now.

He had been informed that he had lost the arm. He had been given enough time to wake up and get his bearings, but the news had been delivered swiftly and without preamble by Szayel. Nel had been unhappy about it. She had admonished him for his lack of sensitivity and made an attempt at being soothing.

He couldn't remember what had happened. One moment he'd been in a scrubby desert wasteland, the next... he'd woken up under the too-bright lights of the Palace infirmary.

Szayel had poked and prodded and written things down, but Ienzo hadn't bothered replying to his questions. Did they really matter? He looked up as he scented the distant, suppressed chakra that told him Ulquiorra was close, but he frowned, looking down at the blanket that covered him. He gripped it, feeling as though he had done so with both hands, but only felt the fabric under one.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel turned at Ulquiorra's presence and smirked. He had, under duress, discarded the remains of Ienzo's arm. It was growing increasingly difficult to find reasons to just leave it, carefully, uncontaminated for later retrieval, especially with first Lumi's, and then Even's watchful eyes on him.

Another time, perhaps. Ienzo would be required to stay in the infirmary for a while under close observation. There would inevitably be something he could take.

Now Ulquiorra was an interesting specimen in his own right, what with that little display he'd put on. "Aizen hasn't scrapped you for parts just yet, then," he said, too airily.

[declaregamuza]

Nel was lingering. She'd given Ienzo a couple of doses of cure when he'd first started coming round, but aside from that and pushing the plunger on syringes, there wasn't much more she could do for Ienzo right now. Not directly, at least. Punching Szayel was always an option on the table to make people feel better.

Ienzo hadn't spoken yet. It was concerning her. He was always thoughtful, but he was rarely this silent.

Ulquiorra looked tired. Drained. Like the world weighed on his shoulders. He often looked that way, but he didn't normally look so... done with it all.

He'd come back with Ienzo bleeding to death in his arms. He'd taken on some monstrous form that left so little of himself to detect that it was frightening. What in the hell had happened to the two of them?

"Szayel, wind your neck in," she told him.

Then she turned her attention to Ulquiorra, and asked, softly, "Are you okay?"

[tozasemurcielago]

Ulquiora glanced around the room. His eyes lingered on Szayel before dismissing him from significance without a word. His comment was designed to poke at a soft underbelly, but Ulquiorra had none, and Szayel's weapons were too crude to pierce.

He turned to Even next. Ienzo didn't speak much of him, or the other Ryoka generally, and Ulquiorra had never pushed for information about them. In part that was because he didn't care, and in part it was because he didn't wish Ienzo-san to wonder if Ulquiorra might be after information on them through him, on Aizen-sama's behalf.

He turned away from Even to look at Ienzo-san, broken and stoic on the infirmary bed. He looked lopsided, his body out of balance. Nel's question barely registered with Ulquiorra. He wasn't the one that had lost an arm. If he had he could have grown it back. Ienzo-san had no such ability.

He approached the bed, coming to a halt a few inches from Ienzo-san's curled fingers of his remaining hand. That he was sat up, that he was still breathing were miracles in their own right, proof of Szayel's value to Aizen-sama, despite everything.

What was there to say? He'd come, he'd seen, but now he was here, curiosity sated, what was there to say or do?

He looked over where Ienzo-san's arm was bandaged. He could still remember the feel of blood slowly trickling down his tail, the way it ran into his fur and dried, leaving him at once crusted and wet. The smell in his nose lingered still. The sight of Ienzo-san, unconscious as he held him close was still there on the backs of his eyelids.

"Where is the rest of his arm?" he asked, turning his eyes alone towards Szayel. He knew what Szayel was like, what charge he would try to extract from Ienzo-san for his services.

[thechillyacademic]

Even glared at Ulquiorra.

He had never liked him. Ever since he had sat with him in a train compartment, he had unsettled him. There was something off about him, wrong, something that reminded him of days gone by, of darkness, of Hollows. Even so, he hadn't argued against it. It wasn't his place, though he did consider it a risk for Ienzo to get that close to something so dark again. But Ienzo knew his own mind and Ulquiorra had, despite all appearances, been a decent a good bodyguard.

Until today.

"I might ask you that," he snapped.

[theschemer]

Ienzo looked up at Even when he snapped, but surprise was absent from his face. Instead he looked at him dull-eyed. Ulquiorra would never let anything happen to him. He didn't remember what had happened, but he knew that Ulquiorra couldn't be too blame. He was too diligent in his duties, too competent.

[tozasemurcielago]

Ulquiorra looked at Even. He didn't care for or about the opinions of others as a rule, and the opinions of Ryoka other than Ienzo-san in particular. He knew little about Even, except that he was a mage, a scientist, and supposedly prone to outbursts although this had seemed something of an informed trait.

Until now.

"The Eremite Plains," he answered, bluntly. Ienzo's arm was, by now, in the belly of some beast, or destroyed completely by the Weapon, or Ulquiorra's attacks on it, or some combination of all three.

He had brought Ienzo-san back. It had been all he could do. He couldn't save his arm, or defeat the Weapon.

[thechillyacademic]

Even strode to the door, not sparing Szayel a glance on the way out in spite of his comment. He said things deliberately to needle, whether they be to allies, subjects or whatever he was to him. He didn't have time for that sort of nonsense now, he had more important things to think about, and talk about.

He headed in the direction of the kitchen, not wishing to have the discussion right outside the door, where Szayel might hear them.

[declaregamuza]

Nel paused at Szayel's words. He was a little too good, sometimes, at jabbing with scalpel sharp words in sensitive areas. She'd got good at not letting on when anything he said bothered her, but he still landed guttingly accurate jabs from time to time.

She shook her head, and carried on, following Even out of the infirmary. She'd thought he might stop outside the doors, but he didn't, so she followed him further, towards the kitchen, without asking what it was. She wouldn't need to ask, when Even was ready, she knew. He was planning to tell her something, she just had to let him speak.

[thechillyacademic]

The kitchen was, for once, mercifully empty. There were two cups in the sink, but Even didn't bother to guess who they belonged to. Could be anybody. He sat down, not bothering to put the kettle on. Tea could, for once, wait.

"It's about Ienzo," he said, looking at Nel for a moment before looking at the table top.

[declaregamuza]

Nel pouted disapprovingly at the cups abandoned in the sink. Was it really so much to ask that people wash up after themselves? Just rinse it out, give it a drop of washing up liquid, ten seconds of a scrub and it was done. Instead people left it for other people to do, which meant Nel did it.

"I gathered as much," she said, when Even felt like speaking. She pulled a chair out from around the table and eased herself into it. She was tired, but she knew she was nowhere near as tired as Ienzo, and Ulquiorra, probably were. "What is it?"