Anna breathes shakily, blinking her eyes. Her insides are still rattled, and panic wraps icy claws around her throat. Her arm is burning, and she's not sure if that's real or just her imagination, but the pain, phantom or otherwise, is enough to keep her where she is for the moment, trying to shoulder past pain and panic both. Come on, Anna. Come on. You're not dead, no one's dead--
No one's dead, right?
She swings herself upright in a somewhat violent movement that makes her kind of dizzy, but she needs to see. She doesn't have the strength to stand just yet but sitting is enough to look around. Zelos and Sheena both accounted for. Zelos looks pretty bad off, but Anna can't imagine what that bullshit felt like to a blade, seeing as they're so sensitive to ambient ether. Sheena's okay enough to be yelling--
Oh. Where are Lloyd and Malos? Anna pushes herself to her feet, scanning the area a little more thoroughly. She's facing Sheena and Zelos, a wall of rubble to her left. Also to her left is a gentle tug from Malos. Looks like they've been separated. Not ideal. Workable.
She reaches up to Malos' core crystal, intending to send some kind of signal so he knows she's fine, maybe check up on him--
Pain explodes in her right calf.
Anna cries out, the pain enough to send her to her knees. Someone just fucking stabbed her, maybe threw a knife at her from behind, and--
Her vision blurs as electric ether hits her system, numbing her nerves and dropping her to the ground like a sack of bricks. Distantly, she hears voices.
"Whaddaya say, Aegis? We can do a lot worse to your driver if you don't come willingly."
"Why don't we just kill its driver and be done with it? That thing'll be a lot easier to cart around if it's just a core crystal."
Anger rears its head in Anna's chest, because Zelos is not a thing, but she can't. fucking. move.
The first voice cuts in again. "Nah, lay off, least we can do is give him a choice." A pause, a huff. "Well, Aegis?"
CAN THIS DAY GET ANY WORSE
She's alive.
And if she's alive, so is Malos.
Anna breathes shakily, blinking her eyes. Her insides are still rattled, and panic wraps icy claws around her throat. Her arm is burning, and she's not sure if that's real or just her imagination, but the pain, phantom or otherwise, is enough to keep her where she is for the moment, trying to shoulder past pain and panic both. Come on, Anna. Come on. You're not dead, no one's dead--
No one's dead, right?
She swings herself upright in a somewhat violent movement that makes her kind of dizzy, but she needs to see. She doesn't have the strength to stand just yet but sitting is enough to look around. Zelos and Sheena both accounted for. Zelos looks pretty bad off, but Anna can't imagine what that bullshit felt like to a blade, seeing as they're so sensitive to ambient ether. Sheena's okay enough to be yelling--
Oh. Where are Lloyd and Malos? Anna pushes herself to her feet, scanning the area a little more thoroughly. She's facing Sheena and Zelos, a wall of rubble to her left. Also to her left is a gentle tug from Malos. Looks like they've been separated. Not ideal. Workable.
She reaches up to Malos' core crystal, intending to send some kind of signal so he knows she's fine, maybe check up on him--
Pain explodes in her right calf.
Anna cries out, the pain enough to send her to her knees. Someone just fucking stabbed her, maybe threw a knife at her from behind, and--
Her vision blurs as electric ether hits her system, numbing her nerves and dropping her to the ground like a sack of bricks. Distantly, she hears voices.
"Whaddaya say, Aegis? We can do a lot worse to your driver if you don't come willingly."
"Why don't we just kill its driver and be done with it? That thing'll be a lot easier to cart around if it's just a core crystal."
Anger rears its head in Anna's chest, because Zelos is not a thing, but she can't. fucking. move.
The first voice cuts in again. "Nah, lay off, least we can do is give him a choice." A pause, a huff. "Well, Aegis?"