User blog:Baluar/God Eater: Fall of the Heavens, chapter 30: In due time

Lina woke up. She was well rested, and thought for a second she was safe in her bed.

Then the reality of everything that had happened to her in the last few days hit her.

However, she also remembered being gravely wounded by an Aragami, being hit from behind and crashing against the floor hard enough to lose her consciousness almost instantly.

And yet, there she was. She didn't feel any better, but a small part of herself was thankful that she was still alive.

Right after that, however, something blurry closed in on her. She had but a fraction of a second to think what it was, but her unconscious noticed a thing moving at that speed towards her was probably nothing good, and she moved out of the way before even realizing it was a weapon.

When she looked up, she found herself alone in the plane's remnants. Baluar entered a few seconds later, with a battered look. He stopped all of a sudden, and Lina knew that if he didn't snark at all in her presence, something was probably wrong. Thus, she remained silent.

After a short while, something approached and slashed the big man in the face. Lina couldn't find her weapon, so she deemed safer to stay down and play possum than to stand up and fight whatever it was that attacked Baluar.

She quickly realized it was a monster not so different to the one she had fought in her Branch, but just when she was about to say to Baluar than both monsters had similarly exploitable attack paterns, a shot penetrated one of the plane's windows and impacted the Aragami's head, blowing it up.

Lina could see Baluar looking at her. She was about to smile when the headless abomination rose and moved at Baluar, but before she could utter a warning, the monster had firmly used its sword to grievously harm him.

He turned around and made mincemeat out of the fearful monster, but it only took him a few seconds to realize he had been impaled. And he began to scream in a way Lina was certain would give her nightmares in many nights to come.

However she felt about him, she thought of him as someone invulnerable, or damn near so. He had jumped out of a fucking plane to fight a flying Aragami in melee combat, and he had survived like it was nothing. He was unaffected by a point-blank grenade explosion.

To be reminded of his humanity... it was reassuring and frightening at the same time.

It wasn't long before he lost consciousness.

Lina quickly stood up and instinctively pulled out the blade from the man's body. The swords' edge looked like it had melted, but any God Eater with half a brain would instantly realize that the Cells that made up the weapon had instead found a way to infect the unfortunate victim.

Lina thought quickly. "What can possibly be done to help him?" Time passed frighteningly quick, and yet she didn't find any solution. Then, she realized that, if his body was still struggling, it was probably because his own Oracle Cells had begun fighting the invading cells. What could she do to amplify the power of his cells, or to diminish that of the foreign ones? It was a scaringly short minute, and then another, and then yet another, before she figured out the a potential solution to the dilemma.

O-Ampules.

They injected Oracle Cells into the God Eater's body which would then (normally) be used to fire guns. However, in this case, it was likely that Baluar's body was using everything it had to fight the invasion. Every cell, Oracle or not, was probably doing its best to repel the invasion.

She didn't think twice before rushing to the emergency medical supplies... but there was almost nothing of use there. Painkillers, cotton, alcohol... nothing of which was of use in case of an Oracle Cell infection.

Granted, most people would never have a chance to survive if faced with an Oracle infection, but Lina didn't think on that.

-Dammit! - she screamed. She then noticed a single pill lying on a corner, colored blue and green. It was diminutive, and Lina's gaze could barely make out the name. "O-Ampule XVI". - SIXTEEN?! Who could ever need...? Doesn't matter. - Normally, such an insane amount of Oracle Cells would infect whoever dared consuming it, but all things considered, Baluar's situation was grim enough that everything was worth trying.

Lina grabbed a bottle of water from the plane's destroyed fridge, and ran to where her savior was lying, past Nanako and Lyrr, both lying unconscious in their respective seats. She put the pill in his mouth and poured water down until the pill disappeared.

Now, all that remained to be seen was wether or not she helped saving him or helped condemning him to a grave... or worse.

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