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.

[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.

[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.

[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.