Gem awoke to a room filled with darkness. Her eyes took several seconds to discern the familiar outline of her quarters, her mind only slightly behind in recalling that it was the exact same outline as all of her teammate’s.

She tried to shift from the bed, finding herself extraordinarily hungry. The first spasms of pain were enough to flatten her against the mattress, but they continued for what felt like hours. A sharp, subterranean agony twisting in her sides, unrelenting and unerringly targeted at that sweet spot directly between organs and skin.

Despite herself, Gem heard a pathetic squeak escape her own lips as the sensation assailed her. Tears built in her eyes and her hands curled into fists without her even realising. She remained in that position as the pain began to diminish, falling off ever so slightly until it had vanished altogether.

It had done its job, though. Gem remembered quite clearly what had happened in the task. The image of Simona smiling down at her, snapping another rib, almost made her vomit.

Gem had lost. She’d accepted that possibility, come to terms with it. But this had been more than a loss, it had been a humiliation. A three on four battle was the exact sort of thing she’d always gone around challenging other mystics to, eager to show off her talent and prove to them that it was great in ways they wouldn’t believe without seeing.

How fortunate she’d been that no one had ever humoured that arrogant, stupid little girl’s demands.

She felt herself grow uncomfortable, and with a sinking heart realised that she’d soon need to shift position in the bed. Gritting her teeth and steeling herself, she did so- lifting one arse cheek from the mattress and bringing the rest of her back up to follow it. The agony was unspeakable, but Gem was able to whimper it all the same.

***

Xeno wasn’t sure exactly what brought her out of her sleep, Gem’s whimpering was far too quiet to have woken her even from only a few paces away. Her curiosity lasted for only a fraction of a second, however, quickly banished by the urgency that hearing any kind of whimper from her friend filled her with.

Groaning slightly as she sat upright, she stood from her temporary bed on the sofa and moved across the room.

The sofa was not particularly comfortable to sleep on, leaving many cricks in her back and neck from where she’d had to practically contort herself just to lie on it- and Xeno had been the only one small enough to do so even with that.

Her petty discomfort was banished from her mind as she came to sit down next to Gem, thanking the clear floor for saving her the trouble of stumbling until her eyes adjusted to the dark.

“Hello Gem,” Xeno began. She wasn’t sure how else to address the girl, wasn’t sure what kind of mental state she was in. To her relief, Gem answered. Her answer was in a thin voice, shaky and fragile as a glass-reed, though it was an answer nonetheless.

“Hi, Xeno.”

Silence. Xeno waited a few moments, thinking that Gem may see fit to continue the conversation. She didn’t.

“Um, how are you feeling?” She asked, stupidly. Gem didn’t give her the tongue-lashing she deserved for such a moronic question.

“Not great,” Gem admitted. “Though from what I remember… I suppose I’m doing much better than I would normally, that’s thanks to you, right?”

A smile animated Xeno’s mouth, and she noticed her friend’s face becoming gradually more visible in the gloom.

“Well, not really. I applied the bandages and reset your ribs, but it would’ve all been pointless if Astra hadn’t used her own credits to get some magical ones. You’ve probably healed the equivalent of a week just in the twelve hours you’ve slept.”

She found herself flexing her arm as she did so, keenly remembering the state it had been in until she’d purchased a similar treatment for herself- and how incredibly useful it had proven in helping Gem. Granted, the twinges of pain about the collar let her know that even now the limb was far from combat-ready.

She marveled to hear Gem speak with how much worse her sides must have been.

“But you did reset them, right? You figured out what the damage was, and you fixed it. There’d have been no point in anyone getting medical supplies for me if they only helped my ribs heal in the wrong way…”

The girl trailed off, then spoke once more- incredulity filling her tone.

“I’m sorry, did you say Astra paid for the medical supplies you used?”

Xeno nodded, and the girl shook her head slightly as if in disbelief.

“Eclipse, I wouldn’t have seen that coming. Maybe I should thank her…”

After being subjected to her teammate’s arguing for such a long period of time, Xeno decided against pointing out to Gem that Astra had only used a portion of her own credits for fear of losing a valuable teammate who would help her chances of victory.

Gem opened her mouth once more, apparently not having said all she needed to, however her words were drowned in the sharp rapping of knuckles against wood. She turned along with Xeno to stare at the door.

Bermuda was a strange place, certainly different from the parts of the Unixian Alliance Xeno had spent her time in since coming into its custody, but she hadn’t thought the social customs would be so different as to permit visitation at such a late hour. It was for this reason that she didn’t stand to answer the door until whoever was behind it knocked a second time.

Her coordination robbed by the grasp of the darkness, she fumbled with the lock for a few moments before successfully undoing it- then stepped back as she pulled the door open. The sight on the other side was most certainly not what she’d expected.

A tall woman, incredibly tall- towering over her by nearly half a metre. Her skin was tanned and seemed to drink in the shadows, while her eyes acted as intensifying mirrors. What traces of light struck them were cast back as a brilliant amber, giving the impression that a match was somehow burning within the globes.

Karma Alabaster made no outwardly hostile expression as she spoke to Xeno, but somehow the mere act of her saying anything at all was more intimidating than most people would be while levelling a musket at her.

“I’m here to see the Gemini, make yourself scarce.”

The words were delivered as if they were a secret code agreed on beforehand, the kind which left not even a hair’s breadth to doubt they would be obeyed. Of course any doubt that had been there would have been misplaced, as Xeno stepped out of the room the moment Alabaster moved aside to let her.

***

Gem felt her stomach lurch as she heard Karma’s voice. She wanted to turn to the source, check to make sure she wasn’t mistaken even while knowing there was no chance of that. And yet from her head’s place on the pillow, her line of sight didn’t extend directly to the door frame. She made only one attempt to change position and amend that, but quickly stopped as her ribs screamed in response.

There would have been no point in powering through the pain anyway, a silhouette passed through the room- crossing the carpet and coming to a stop right by Gem’s bed. From such a short distance, her view was clear enough that there was no mistaking Karma for anyone else.

“Hello Gem,” the Olympian said. It was too dark to make out any real details of her beautiful face with just the dim light snaking under the door from the hallway. Nonetheless, those two words were almost enough for Gem to imagine the woman’s face.

Dispassionate, scrutinous, disappointed.

A flash of rage crept up through Gem’s chest as she found her answer.

“Are you here to remind me that you told me so?” She demanded, almost surprised at the hostility in her own voice. Not surprised enough to stop, however. “Well tough. I did everything you said, followed all of your advice. I thought about everything from every angle that occurred to me, and I still…”

Her mouth dried up, the words dying on her tongue. Gem couldn’t quite bring herself to outright say what still happened to her.

All of a sudden her face felt wet, the space between her eyes and the flesh behind her ears had been turned into moistened streaks. Tears, of course. That was the path they took with her head in the position it was.

Gem felt herself begin to tremble slightly, her chest beginning to heave- though stopping far early due to the twinges of hot pain that such activity elicited. Karma didn’t move, her eyes remained affixed on Gem’s face- barely visible in the dim.

“Do you think that makes any difference?” The Olympian asked, voice cool and dispassionate.

Speechless, Gem simply stared at the obscured face of her friend- only wishing she could somehow hide her tears. Karma was right. She’d spent her life surrounded by great people, beautiful, brilliant and powerful all at once. It had been nothing but vanity that made her think she could compensate for lacking two of the three by flaunting the third.

With much effort, she steadied her voice- fighting back sobs and forcing her breathing to close in on some semblance of normality. Once she was confident she’d managed, she spoke.

“I assume you won’t be tutoring me any longe-”

Gem gasped as Karma moved, the woman’s arms closing around her body even as she pressed her own against her. The action was so foreign- so completely uncharacteristic of her- that it took Gem several moments to register it for the hug it was.

Karma’s breath was warm in her ear, her voice as soft as wet silk as she whispered to her.

“Don’t be stupid, Gem. I don’t care how well you did or didn’t perform. You’re alive and okay, that’s all that matters.”

Despite Gem’s desperate attempts to stifle them, her tears returned with a vengeance.

***

It took quite some time for her to stop crying, and when she finally did it was only with great effort. Once her weeping was reduced to only light sniffling, Karma pulled back slightly- lying down on the bed next to Gem, but continuing to hold her. It was amazingly gentle, one of her arms having snaked under her by pressing down on the mattress in such a way as to wrap around her body without jarring her injuries by moving the body itself.

Apparently handling broken ribs was yet another entry on the long list of things Karma was great at.

The double bed had room enough for two people, however Gem lay near the centre- leaving Karma squeezed close to her just to avoid falling from the edge. Turned to face Gem as she was, the Olympian’s chest was pressing quite obviously against her- even while her hips lay on top of Gem’s hand.

Gem found herself suddenly feeling quite hot, acutely aware that she could feel her friend’s heartbeat- even the slightest pressure exerted as her breasts were compressed slightly between their bodies. And yet in that moment, as they lay side by side, she was far more concerned with the fact that Karma’s fingers were gently tracing themselves over her head. Stroking her hair as softly and lovingly as a mother might her daughter’s.

It was comforting in a way she couldn’t quite put into words, even if she’d wanted to. Comforting in a way even Gilasev had never quite been. Thoughts of Simona, thoughts of her torture, they all seemed to fade slightly. Not disappear, they would surely never do that, but even so, they were… muted. Blunted.

Defanged.

By the time Karma next spoke, Gem’s eyelids had begun to feel rather heavy.

“Gem, I’ve been thinking about what you said when I first came to see you. How you thought I was about to drop you as a student, and that it would have somehow been your fault.”

She felt the Olympian’s chest tighten as she inhaled sharply, the way Karma had taught her people always did when they were about to say something hard.

“I realise why you thought this, as well. When I agreed to train you I… Well, I was terrified.”

Her words struck Gem like a fist. Karma had been terrified of something? Gem had always assumed she killed a dozen Gondi before breakfast, and saluted her mother every night before bed.

Karma shifted slightly, not enough to jar Gem’s ribs painfully but certainly enough to send an unpleasant twinge through them. She was nervous.

“You asked me who taught me right before asking I take you under my wing, remember?”

Gem nodded. That question had been one of the many that Karma had left unanswered, however most peculiarly she’d seemed to evade it rather than make a challenge of it.

“The reason I didn’t tell you was because, frankly, I don’t like to talk about it. It wasn’t pleasant, and it wasn’t easy. And it’s not something that I plan on revisiting, even now.”

Frowning at that, Gem remained silent nonetheless. If Karma didn’t plan on revisiting it, why mention it at all? She soon received her answer.

“I’m bringing it up now because I think there’s been a terrible miscommunication between us. Gem, the way you seemed to consider yourself at fault today tells me that you were measuring yourself against someone brilliant. I assume that was me?”

Gem nodded once more, she’d been awed by many in the area of intelligence alone- but battle tactics were something she’d seen demonstrated by Karma alone. Gilasev didn’t think about most of his fights anymore than a human thought about how best to defeat an ant.

Karma’s face was hard to make out in the gloom, but Gem’s night-adjusted eyes just caught a grimace on her friend’s face.

“That is unfortunate,” the Olympian said- voice hollow. “Gem, do not ever compare yourself to me in that capacity again. I want the best for you, you understand? That means I want you to be powerful, and cunning, and a thousand other things. But above them all, it means I want you to be happy. That’s why I want you to refrain from ever using my knowledge and skill as a measuring stick again.”

She paused, apparently struggling with the weight of her words.

“Treat it as an unattainable goal, if you must. Because believe me, with the means necessary to replicate it, happiness would be a difficult thing indeed.”

Falling silent once more, Karma allowed her words to hang in the air. Gem couldn’t see her face in any great detail, but she hadn’t needed to. She’d heard her, heard the voice she’d spoken with- heard how it had changed at the end of her speech.

What in the world had been done to her?