kingdomdressing | (no subject)

[she chokes a little and wraps her hands around his arm, trying to push it back even a millimeter. regardless, she manages to gasp out:]

They'll be... proud of me...

[~~she will also go for the groin with her knee, because it's there and there's not much else she CAN do. P:~~]

[Well. She's going to get a knife embedded in one ear for her efforts. Also because he knows what she says is true, and it disgusts him.]

[if there was anyone left in the building or even immediately outside who wasn't aware of some shit going down, they'll know now, because that scream she let out probably carried pretty far. it hurts more than anything she's ever felt, more than anything she can think of; not that she's able to think anymore. she's incoherent and flailing as hard as she can, blindly through the agonizing pain, trying to hit any part of Larx to just make him stop.]

[He doesn't seem to care, having backed off several feet from the attack on his groin to recover. Now he's dodging any particularly high (or particularly low) hits to jam his knuckles in the middle of her chest, electricity pumping through her. He's going to at least partially fry the fur on her ears, and some of her hair.]

[he does remember that regular people have hearts there, right? and if he does too much of that there won't be anything of her to be found, because she will have died and vanished already. as it is, the scream gets cut off abruptly with a stunned sort of gasp, and then she's convulsing on the electrical current. she'll go relatively limp when it stops, and cough a little.]

[Yes, but he's pissed off, and doesn't care. He can always catch her again if he really wants to. There's no way to completely cut yourself off from the bad guys in this place. There never will be! But don't worry, he knows what he's doing, and he's not going to kill her. He wants this pain to last. When he's satisfied for now he steps back, sneering at her. One hand comes up to cup her chin.]

[she struggles to make her eyes focus on him, and to make her whole body stop twitching. if he didn't have a grip on her she'd probably be tilting slowly to one side.]

Wh... why...

[And the knife pinned to the elevator wall through her ear, hmm? Speaking of knives, he's pulling them back, pressing them up against her throat. He leans very close. Close enough to kiss her, if he wanted to. Good thing he doesn't.]

Because I want you and everyone you love to suffer.

[she would bite him. :E also if she was tired enough, she would probably just collapse, regardless of the ear, which is bleeding profusely all down the side of her head and neck and isn't helping with her dazed state. she'd love to give him some scathing rejoinder, but it's too hard to speak right now, and she hears something that sounds a bit like a Tank coming closer, but without the roaring. someone seems to be forcibly bashing through the outer doors into the elevator shaft on the floor above them. Axel's here, and his anger is practically a palpable force preceding him. if he wanted to trap Larxene, it would've been too easy, but that's not what he wants right now. he just wants Larx away from his daughter.]

[Larxene: Abscond the fuck out of there.

Again, he's crazy, not stupid. He doesn't know how Axel found them, but he's here now, and Larx knows that if Axel did get his hands on him, he wouldn't kill him. He has experience with that in the past, likely several times over. So he gives Inaya one more nasty look and disappears in a portal, taking his knives with him. He'll be hopping rapidly through the dark corridors and worlds around the dressing room before he ever settles. He is not getting caught.]

[Inaya bursts into tears of relief almost immediately and slumps slowly to the floor, reaching with a shaking hand to touch her mangled ear and crying even harder when she pulls it away and sees how much blood there is.

above her, Axel gets the doors open and drops down to the top of the elevator car, and then quickly swings down through the access hatch, landing beside Inaya. it doesn't matter that they're from different timelines, and that he's only ever seen and been fiercely protective of the toddler version he gave birth to; this is still his daughter, his flesh and blood, and he sits right down on the floor of the elevator beside her and gathers her gently into his arms, pressing his own hands to her ear for some light healing to help until Kai gets there. Inaya latches onto him and clings, and proceeds to get his shirt really soggy. at least when Aden arrives, the level of terror in the air should be dropping pretty rapidly.]

[with luck, no one will be terribly startled when the elevator groans to life and starts heading down at its normal speed shortly after Axel arrives! it stops on the first floor, unless someone did something stupid like hit the emergency stop. the doors will open to reveal Kai, having already placed his bag of supplies down on the floor. his expression is steely, though it softens slightly at the sight of Inaya.]

Bring her here, with all Larxene did the elevator's probably not entirely safe to stay inside.

[Aden's there too, hands at his sides, working at emotionless. He's worried, that much can be seen in everything about him, and his expression tightens when he sees Inaya, sees and smells the blood and scent of charred flesh. It's much easier to deal with than her fear. It doesn't matter if Axel and Kai are both there now, if she's calming down or whatever. She was terrified, and it's not completely gone. He's keeping a good fifteen feet of distance between them.]

[Axel's first reaction isn't entirely happy; he can still be a bit mother-defending-her-cubs even when it's just Kai, but then he easily lifts Inaya in his arms and gets to his feet, leaving the elevator and settling down again right outside it with her in his lap. she's just sobbing, face pressed against Axel's neck, and trembling violently with relief and as a delayed reaction to the panic of before.]

[Inaya will feel Kai's light washing over her as it examines what needs to be fixed. Kai's doing a pretty good job of hiding his fury over his baby girl getting hurt, especially by Larxene. also, the fact that Aden's keeping his distance for now is good, and Kai appreciates it, because the whole... thing Aden and Red have with fear is really not a good thing to bring into this mess.]

[Yeah. He's pretty sure Inaya doesn't know about it, or at least doesn't know the full extent of it, anyway, so he doesn't want to get close enough for her to smell any... interest on him. He's sure Kai and Axel both know, and know it's not something he can control, but.]

What did he do to her?

[she can't focus on specifics right now anyway, don't worry. Axel glances up at Aden and then rests his cheek on Inaya's hair, rocking her slightly.]

Looks like he mostly went for her ears. [Inaya lets out an anguished noise at that, even though, you know, she was the one there for all of it.] Shh, my sweet girl, you're safe now. Kai, are you gonna be able to fix the one?

Of course.

[he's fixed much worse than this, after all. he can't do anything for the fur, of course, but he can make sure it grows back without any problems. he exhales slowly and sets to work mending the injuries caused by all that electricity, along with the her ear.]

[He stays far away, looking fidgety, and eventually starting to pace. He feels guilty for running off instead of trying to save her immediately, even though he knows both of them would have wound up dead because of it.]

[Inaya's slowly quieting, both from the healing and the fact that she's with people she loves, the sobs turning into hiccups. Axel's watching Aden pace, and finally speaks up.]

Aden, you did the best thing. It's terrible that this happened, but if you'd interrupted him early in the encounter, he would have just taken her somewhere else, or hurt you too and then left with her.

[he's quiet, letting them speak as he concentrates on healing Inaya as best he can. he doesn't want her to have to suffer any lasting damage from this encounter. physical damage, anyway. he knows he can't help heal the emotional and mental damage that easily.]

I know that. I'm not stupid.

[Defensive, maybe, because he's always had to run off and find an adult when there was trouble, or play bait while someone else ran off, like Kira or even Inaya. But now he's almost eighteen and he still has to do it, because he can't fight as well as them. He doesn't even care about that, he doesn't want to be able to fight like them. He just wants to be able to protect the people he cares about.]

[Axel opens his mouth to reply, but then Inaya slowly removes her face from his neck to turn and look at Aden. she looks like hell, her face all red and splotchy from crying (and from blood, on the one side), but she manages a wobbly sort of stern look at Aden.]

S-stop it, Aden, you helped me the best way you could've. Daddy's right, about all of it, and I'll be fine.

[his lips twitch a little despite the situation at seeing that. she's definitely his and Axel's kid, though who knows which of them she got the stern look from. he's still concentrating on soothing her hurts, more inwardly now as the ear seems to have mostly patched itself up.]

[Not really knowing him, and only knowing his parents, they might think he'd take after them and get annoyed or further defensive from that, but he just looks at Inaya, then nods his head low. His eyes are glowing at this point, just a little.]

Yes, ma'am.