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

[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.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel gave Even a twisted smirk at his question. "Well," he said, "he's just lost about four kilos, but I doubt I'll be able to market his diet plan." He gave a one shouldered shrug and leaned against the wall, unconcerned by the dangerously unhappy look he was receiving. "His arm was torn off mid-way down the humerus. The bone was splintered and the muscle and skin was, frankly, minced. I've had to remove up until just below his shoulder."

He gave Even a steady look, tilting his head so the light reflected off his glasses. "As for how, I don't know. His arm was torn off with some force, but right now that's all the information I have." His smirk deepened, becoming something more dangerous behind his glasses. "I expect your informant had some theories."

It had been hard to miss that Lumi had come to babysit while Szayel worked, leaving Marluxia, holder of Lumi's leash, free to do his whispering and summon Even. Funny how it was Even that came to enquire, and not Marluxia himself.

[thechillyacademic]

Even, quite frankly, didn't care much about Marluxia's theories. Marluxia had little information, he had made that quite clear, but Ulquiorra had turned up in an unrecognisable form, with that awful reiatsu, and Ienzo in his arms, and the assumptions there were obviously going to go one way before long. Even didn't think that had happened, Aizen assured him that Ulquiorra had not been the cause. However, he should have prevented it.

That was Even's issue. That was what Ulquiorra was there for.

"What will the recovery be like?" he asked.

He hadn't considered the weight aspect until Szayel mentioned it. That was going to throw off Ienzo's balance.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel inhaled deeply through his nose as he considered the question. Recovery was probably the wrong word for it. Ienzo wasn't going to recover; he wasn't going to grow his arm back by degrees over the next few weeks and months. What his body would do was heal, hopefully, with a little help and monitoring.

"That's actually difficult to say," Szayel conceded. "He's going to be in pain for a few days, and he'll need compression bandages on what's left of his arm. Traumatic amputations tend to be more prone to oedema." Szayel adjusted his glasses, keeping his eyes on Even's expression. "I can let him out once the stitches have healed, but he'll still have to keep an eye out for infection. I started him on a course of antibiotics already, but there isn't much more I can safely amputate if anything goes wrong." More wrong than it already had, anyway. "He'll need to learn to compensate, too," rehabilitation they called it, but compensating was what it was.

Automail was an option, of course, but it was never a good idea to plan that far ahead at this early stage. Further setbacks could be devastating, and if anyone went pinning their hopes on Ienzo having a prosthetic replacement and then, for whatever reason, it didn't go to plan, Szayel didn't want anyone coming and knocking angrily on his door. Szayel tilted his head, briefly, adding, "And the chances are that he'll experience pain in the arm he's lost for a long time, if not the rest of his life."

[thechillyacademic]

Even nodded. He had heard about phantom limb pain. He was a biologist, after all. Not a surgeon, nor a doctor, but he did specialise in that area of study, not that he was given to dissecting his specimens like others in his field.

Ienzo had a long road ahead of him, then. The antibiotics would undoubtedly be a good thing, even though other patients of Szayel's had, for undisclosed reasons, refused them in the past.

There were other important matters to deal with, however, and Even fixed Szayel with a hard look. "You will, of course, not be permitted to keep any samples." Not a chance.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel fixed Even with a sharp look. Permitted implied he'd bother with permission, and Szayel didn't believe in consent as a concept. Not when it came to tests and procedures, anyway.

"Yes, I'd got that impression," he answered. Lumi had, after all, done a spectacular job of standing guard and making it difficult for Szayel to go and store the tissue he'd removed already. "I don't ask much," he said, with a hint of petulance, "just that one of you surrenders a tiny fragment of yourselves so I can study and learn. Surely as a scientist you can appreciate that?" He threw Even a look as he spoke, and then rolled his eyes in apparent defeat.

Well, arguing wasn't going to get him his samples, so Szayel was ready to go for outright lying and subterfuge instead.

[thechillyacademic]

"I can. As such, I will allow it when I get access to Arrancar samples," he said, arching an eyebrow, one side of his nose creasing in distaste.

It was only fair, of course. That was the problem, Even would never be allowed to get his hands on Arrancar samples because they were probably considered the property of some laboratory, and the information would be kept, largely, within the group. In addition, it could provide information on how to take them out of commission, or a basis for coming up with a weapon to target them specifically in a way that cut out the need for Hollow-specific weapons like Zanpakuto. He was sure Aizen wouldn't want that.

"Why do you think we would want you to learn about us?" He thought it was stupid that Szayel thought he would get anywhere with that line of complaint.

He hadn't been allowed any part of Lumi, but that didn't matter to Even. Lumi, as far as Even was aware, was apart from them anyway. Any information he could glean from Lumi's samples would provide little intelligence on them as a group. If he happened to get Nobody samples, however... that was rather different and, he expected, the only reason Lumi had bothered standing guard over Ienzo.

He didn't want anything happening that would compromise Marluxia's safety.

[sipthehoneylikeabutterfly]

Szayel's smirk turned flirtatious. He dipped his head and gave Even a glance over the top of his glasses before he raised his head again, and an eyebrow. "Well, if you're looking for a fair exchange of samples, I know a few ways we could go about it." He paused, to let the words and his demeanour sink in, and his meaning to get across before he flashed Even a predatory smile. "I can promise you'll enjoy it."

Of course the Ryoka didn't want anyone else to learn about them. They had their secrets and they guarded them well. Not so well, these days. Two of them had ended up on Szayel's examination table already. With a little luck it would only be a matter of time, and with the state of Ienzo, there were going to be many, many opportunities to obtain samples from him over the coming weeks.

Szayel didn't think that what they wanted really mattered, in the end. If they really wanted to stop him trying to obtain samples, they could go to Aizen. Until the instruction came from him to stop, Szayel was going to continue trying.

Even if instruction did some from him to stop, Szayel would probably continue to try anyway.

[thechillyacademic]

"You're a cretin," Even said, fixing him with a flat expression.

Ienzo had almost died, would be missing an arm for the rest of his life, potentially short life, and here was Szayel, propositioning him. Cutting certain bits off would certainly provide samples, Even thought.

He didn't bother to keep the disgust off his face. Szayel was revolting at the best of times, let alone when he was propositioning him. Ugh.