<a class="postlink" href="https://creativefreedomrpg.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&amp;t=49773&amp;start=40#p359025">-  Prev Post -</a><br/><br/><object height="360" width="640"><param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/s32EwTPv3wE"/><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><embed height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/v/s32EwTPv3wE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" wmode="transparent"/></object><br/><br/>___________________<br/><br/>Serafima woke up in a cell.<br/><br/>The good news was: they didn't really check her face and clothes, and just threw her into a single cell, without major precautions against mental powers. It seems she passed off as a deserter.<br/>They obviously had taken her visible weapons, and some side weapons, but they didn't find all of them, of course.<br/>Besides the headaches and pain wrecking her body, she could not prevent a small sarcastic smile appearing<br/>on her face. For once, she was lucky to be a '<span style="font-style: italic">hot potato</span>' and '<span style="font-style: italic">ticking time bomb</span>' in the hands of the enemy.<br/><br/>She slowly turned, secretly fidding in her clothes for the receiver of the trackers on her crew members. Not knowing who escaped made her anxious.<br/>To be on the safe side, Ayu had implanted chips tracking life and health movements of any member of their faction.<br/>The bad news, as Serafima scrolled covertly through the list on her virtual display, most of the chips signified "out of range"<br/>or "destroyed". with more than half being the later, signifying many deaths amongst her crew.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">~ Is this Red Redemption number two...?~</span>she thought resignedly, blaming herself for feeling too secure, whilst knowing how dangerous it was to get the Blood Queen's attention, not immediately taking her crew to safety. She had gotten too complacent with the years of being ignored by the major powers.<br/><br/>While she had numbed to the deaths of her crew throughout the half a millenium of her life, lots of them being due to natural lifespan ends, she still felt regret for so many of them taken to soon.<br/>Two faces flickered in her mind, Luciel and Snow. Their features were very different, and they never met.<br/>But the way she had spoiled her cousin that time, reminded her of the spoiled dragon. She did try to salvage it, but was it even possible anymore?<br/>She winced slightly from pain on her body - and maybe as well in her heart - will her failure bring him death?<br/><br/>Luciels and Snows features merged, leaving only Snow as she perked up.<br/>A signal blinking "connected" "in range" , the only virtually close Name... Snow?!<br/>There was nothing but this fleet here, the fighting noises had subsided. Was he on the ship?<br/>She jerked up, double checking the signals, thinking her eyes played a trick on her somehow.<br/><br/>However Ayu seemed to have secretly placed some tracking chip in one of his restrictions or accessoires.<br/>Honestly, while Serafima could have traced him otherwise, this was not really possible at the moment.<br/>Plus, she did not even think he would be anywhere close.<br/>Sighing, the Norva stood up. Was it a good or a bad thing that the Dragon was somewhere here?<br/><br/>At first, she had wanted to lie in ambush, to see who was behind this, find out motives,<br/>the person behind them and of course get a little revenge while she was already there...This had to be put on hold for now.<br/><br/>As for the perpetrator, this Galaxy held three major powerhouses, who were in the open.<br/>Those were the "Ancient One", according to rumors, an ancient Tree-mutated creature, "Blood Queen Zarathustra" and "Death Stalker 'Death Star'", a sneaky Drow, seeking chaos through murder and war in the yearhundreds.<br/>Besides the inherited title of "Death Stalker" , the other two were ancient creatures - compared to the other them, the Drow were not able to live for millenia, having an almost infinite lifespan compared to humans...<br/><br/>As for beyond them, there probably were hidden experts and a few hidden factions as well.<br/>Whilst Serafima was quite certain that this was one of the 'tests' her highness Zarathustra arranged for her,<br/>then again it was not certain, to give her more trouble, she might have gone through different channels, using other factions to pressure her 'dear daughter'. Other than her and the other two major powers, barely anyone would find trouble for her so openly... Maybe this was only one of her assumptions, though. Having the virtual signboard<span style="font-style: italic">"Blood Queens Property"</span>over her head, she was quite convinced that most would not try to find a blood feud or other major trouble with her - knowingly at least.<br/><br/>The reason for this sudden but not sudden tribulation was definitely Blood Queens visit and the dragon bestowal. It's like you remembered that your pet's diet wasnt healthy and wanted to remind it that you hadnt forgotten.. Serafima clenched her hands and grit her teeth. Or one of the other major powers wanted to weaken the Blood Queen, not knowing the proper details besides<span style="font-style: italic">Blood Queen's spawn gained a dragon</span>...<br/><br/>.. she had been not low-key enough, after all. And now she paid for that.<br/><br/><br/>With her changed plans, she set into motion, banging on her cells bars, and attracting attention of a nearby warden.<br/><br/>Moving her hand in a fluent motion, she threw a paralygzing needle from a sleeve in the gaps between the armor of his as soon as he opened the doors - it was one of the 'special' needles, establishing a forceful link.<br/><br/>She half controlled half coaxed the warden and was led to the cargo room, before her mental control slipped away.<br/>Her powers were drying up. She blamed it on the radiation influence.<br/>However, instead of attacking her, the warden screeched and ran away as soon as they could, apparently informing the captain. It seemed they were very informed about her. This made her raise her brows a bit.<br/><span style="color: #FF4040">"That much fame, even for being low key the past years..."</span>she laughed cynically, when the intercom crackled and the captain started to talk.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">~This fear thing is pretty efficient.~</span>she mused, when something the captain said, caught her attention!<br/><br/>Her energy levels were very low due to the unprepared space travel without protection, and she also had a few internal injuries. Maybe a reason why they did not suspect her, even after she woke up. Her eyes were green and bleak, initially.<br/>However, at this point,  as her eyes had turned towars the command bridge camera,  they slowly started to glow in a red hue, intensely, like the radioactive waves residue on her body wanted to strike Foggartz dead on the spot like a thunderbolt.<br/><span style="color: #FF4040">"You dare to pretend at this point that you didn't intentionally capture him?"</span>she hissed in a low voice.<br/>Stripping off her disguise, she took off the pirate uniform and rose into air with her crimson hair trailing behind her, to get on "eye-level" with the thick glass cover of the captains command bridge.<br/><br/>A manical grin on her face illuminated the contrast of her white teeth to caramel skin.<br/><span style="color: #FF4040">"Lost? Haha...I think I did lose something..my <span style="font-style: italic">sharp edge</span>, it seems!"</span>her features signified that she didnt buy a word of it.<br/>Snow should have escaped with the others, why was he here?<br/>At this point of time, anybody who saw the human form and face of the dragon would be a danger to him.<br/><span style="color: #FF4040">"I hope for you, that you were smart enough not to share the dragon's identity and appearance with anyone... I <span style="font-style: italic">will</span> find out who did share it to you and ..."</span>her eerie voice trailed off. She was proficient at imitating the Blood Queen by now.<br/><br/>The rest of the crew shakily opened a side door to a room where they had put the injured shifter in. She suppressed the urge to rush over as soon as possible. Right now, her actions were on display first. She had to use that to her advantage.<br/>If they remembered that Snow could serve as an insurance for them, they would probably try to exploit that.<br/>A glimpse on the treatment of the young shifter revealed a collar.<br/><span style="color: #FF4040">"If the dragon does not survive this... <span style="font-style: italic">You</span> will be the next to be collared. <span style="font-style: italic">And not even by me</span>. Remember his value to the Blood Queen as well." </span>Serafima said lightly, testing the captain, while conjuring a heat energy in her hands, and throwing it towards the monitoring equipment and the command bridge glass, destroying the cameras and charring the whole window to a black smudge.<br/>The plastic started to half-melt, then hardened. She had not used a lot of energy to strike, using it to spread fear and preventing the command bridge to track her if she wanted to disappear from their radar.<br/>The already scared crew hid away, leaving her alone with the shifter.<br/>She grit her teeth as she forced herself to slowly enter the room, pick him up and place him on one of the tables, after swiping everything off the table in a single motion, to tend to his injuries.<br/><br/>As she realized how heavy his injuries were, she froze for a moment. Like a heavy weight on her heart, the self-blame for her cousins death surfaced again, and her hands clenched.<br/>If... She had the urge to slap herself as she re-focussed her attention.<br/>Snow wasnt Luciel, a dragon's body was sturdier and more resilent than a Norvas.<br/>Seeing Snow flail about and trying to move his head, she rested one of her cool hands on his forehead and eyes, softly, to not to agitate any injuries.<br/>He definitely was feverish from the wounds. She had to use medicine to fight his fever off as well, after the treatment.<br/><br/>Serafima regretted leaving all the medical work to Ayu in the last century. She was definitely out of practice with manual stitching and low on power for magical stitching. As for going back to the Shadow, she had not enough time.<br/>Plus, the signal was jammed, so she had no chance to call Shadow over for now - compared to the scraps of medicine that they had here, she would have been able to give better first aid on her own ship.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">~First - treatment. Then - capturing either a ship or the command centre to send a signal to Noctis. ~</span><br/>Breathing in, Serafima saw a few medical supplies in the corner of the room. A pity, besides some bandages, dressings, and a scalpel, most of them were quite useless. The painkillers and fever reducing medicine was too low of quality and quantity for a dragon. She also could not allow Snow to shift right now, even if she saw him trying to do it again and again.<br/>His injuries might heal the wrong way..<br/>as serious as the situation was she could muster a weak smile at his probable indignance if he ended up with a twisted and snaking 'S' neck after healing up the spine injuries in a dragon form.<br/><span style="color: #FF4040">"Snow.."</span>she wispered softly to the half conscious shifter<span style="color: #FF4040">"calm down... and breathe .. slowly..slowly..."</span><br/>His body was still pumping with adrenaline, as she felt, the<span style="font-style: italic">real</span>pain hadnt kicked in yet... which was good. Because it would kick in any time soon as his adrenaline was used up.<br/><br/>She didn't know how many hours or days had passed since she passed out, but it seems it was not too long - her marks still  barely visible on his body. Inserting her magic energy inside, she blocked his power to transform, without alerting the metal collar around his neck. This would work for a little while. At least, until his marks would disappear. She had no energy to waste on renewing them right now, this had to do for now.<br/>After that problem was solved, she could start on treating the shifter. It would be disastrous if he shifted while treatment was in progress.<br/><span style="color: #FF4040">"Alright...this <span style="font-style: italic">will</span> hurt."</span>Normal anaesthetics would not work on a dragon, but she didnt have anything with her right now... besides her blood. But she couldn't risk giving him her blood just like that right now.<br/>Sighing, she picked up the scalpel, grabbed a little vial, and made a small incision on her hand, dripping a few drops of her silvery red blood essence into it. picking up an equal quantity of the blood he lost just now and mixing them.<br/>- Inwardly she was shaking her head at the irony how she needed to use his own blood to treat him.<br/>A reaction soon followed - the blood started to boil and emit intense waves of heat and cold in succession.  The intermixed blood shook and boiled for a while then evaporated in a bloody mist full of magic energy, creating a powerful atmosphere in the small room.<br/><br/>Using this energy to seal off potential dangers as well as use the magic energy for the treatment, cauterizing the most dangerous wounds on the Dragon's body immediately, stopping the bloodflow, she first turned towards the head injury.<br/><br/>The collar, as bad as it looked , was not as important as the head trauma.<br/>Making a few little cuts with the scalpel under the magic atmosphere, she used their magic power to slowly seep in and extract the clotted blood and dead tissue, then seal up the injured parts, mentally guiding the energy to stitch, cauterize and activate Snow's own healing powers when necessary. The process would indeed be painful.<br/>But she also saw that at least his skull was not cracked, just badly bruised and his face swollen. Probably at least a concussion.<br/>The whole process took more than half an hour, and sweat was gathering on her forehead as she channeled the magic energy through her body to deal with this. After confirming that he would not be in mortal danger because of his head injury, she moved on towards the collar on his neck, instantly putting the one that had done this botchered collar work on her personal blacklist...<br/><br/>She would not be able to keep doing this lengthy process with only her own energy. During the operation, she had again and again used her blood to mix with the dragons, to renew the magic power atmosphere.<br/>She was honestly spent, but she still slowly sent in magic power through the needles sticking in his body, and then slowly pulled them out, cauterizing and healing while she removed it.<br/>It would have been dangerous to just pull them out, without stopping the blood flow and repairing the damage first.<br/>Lastly, she removed the collar completely. Its energy had been drained as soon as the magical energy from the blood mist enveloped the room, but ironically this collar kept pressing on Snow's wounds and thus helping to stabilize his injuries, so she could only remove it, after dealing with the other injuries.<br/>Removing the collar and turning the shifter on his side, she checked on his spinal injuries...<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">*~*~*~*</div><br/>Meanwhile, out in space, Noctis and the Shadow tried to frantically track their mistress down, but to no avail yet.<br/>Seeing another Fleet passing by in the direction of the first Fight, Noctis calculated the chances being high to get more information in following them covertly...<br/><div style="text-align: center;">*~*~*~*</div><br/><br/>After finishing up with her first aid treatment, Serafima wrapped the shifter's injured neck in the provided bandages, to stabilize his body, bandaging and dressing his head and side of the face as well.<br/>Removing the blood drenched bedsheets, she, once again placed the Shifter on the bed, luckily finding one more set of bedding for him. Looking at his pale face, she sighed.<br/>Placing a water soaked towel on his forehead to cool down his temperature a little, she checked Snow's vitals again. He seemed stable for now.<br/><span style="font-style: italic">~ With such injuries - I would have been dead already. Almost everyone would have been dead .. He is lucky to have strong bones and the body of a dragon.~</span>She slowly placed him down, resisting the urge to collapse right here and then.<br/>Not knowing if one hour or two had passed, since the operation started, she controlled if the door lock mechanism was still sealed up by the rest of the magic power in the air, checked again for any kind of surveilance equipment, before she moved her body to place a chair next to the bed.<br/><br/>Right now - even if she wanted to kill her way through all of the crew members, she was just a paper tiger with lots of threat but any powers.<br/>Her mental energy was spent beyond the usual limits as well. Even her lifeline was about to be drained if she did not rest and regenerate a little power.<br/><br/>Should Noctis and the Shadow be destroyed, she would have no way of escaping this predicament unscathed.<br/>Shaking her head she went to the small kitchen, drained a few glasses of water, to replenish the water she lost during the operation. Then, she sighed and filled up another glass, dropping a drop of her blood inside.<br/><br/>Going towards the unconscious shifter - he must have passed out from the pain sometime during the operation - she slowly moved his upper body in a half sitting position and placed the glass on his lips, letting his instincts do the rest.<br/>Her blood was the only desinfecting sedative, antibiotics and regeneration medicine she had right now. As for the provided supplies - she neither trusted them nor would their quantity or quality have an impact on a dragon. Any kind of medicine had to be measured on his dragon body, not his human form, after all...<br/>As for her blood, which was way too potent for any human or dhampire - this drop wasnt much, and it would bring a dragon no harm at all. His bloodline should be more powerful anyways.<br/>Looking at him, a painful expression framed her face... but then disappeared to the usual expressionless visage of hers, even though visibly tired and almost as pale as Snow. Her usual caramel skin was now a bleak grey and her eyes were also a bleak greenish tone.<br/><br/>Putting the shifter back down, she placed the half filled glass with a slight silver hue on a small table and just sat there unmoving, trying to regenerate a bit of her energy reserves - she would definitely need them soon.<br/><br/>Being always on alert, she tried to rest without falling asleep, falling in a slight trance state due to exhaustion almost immediately, reminding of somebody having passed out out in a sitting position, just the muscles keeping the body upright. At least the dragon part of the magic energy in the air helped to detoxify the radiation in her body somehow, which she was thankful for.<br/>- That was her last thought before she fell into a light slumber, whilst sitting upright.