Bring The Heat

40. Mint, Blood, And Angels (GOJS ARC 11)

Mint grabbed Robin by her neck, lifting her into the air as she kicked out weakly. Robin gasped for air as the evil fingers gripped her throat tightly.

"You with Wren, huh?" Mint growled, in a voice so far removed from her normally tough yet caring one. "I hope this hurts... for you and her."

Robin screwed her eyes shut to think.

Her shoulder hurt to hell, and she could feel blood pouring down her chest and arm... Ben was still lying beaten on the road, unable to stand with his destroyed foot. She had been told that, eventually, someone with an evil aura would come looking for Wren, and that Robin was meant to prioritize her own safety, but... she could never! She would keep what remained of her promise! Nobody would be allowed to hurt Wren!

This whole time, Robin had been afraid of losing her life... but now she was reminded of what else she had to lose. She felt like this whole time, part of her brain had been sectioned off, hidden away... and only now was it all coming back together.

Robin clasped her hand to Mint's arm, and produced a long plant - but not the usual vine, or root, or even bramble - an Angel's Trumpet plant shot up Mint's arm!

"What the fu-" Mint exclaimed, muffled as the plant shot into her mouth. She squeezed Robin's throat and threw her to the ground, and began to desperately try to spit out the leaves that were curled around her mouth.

Robin clambered shakily to her feet, clutching at her neck and gasping. She could barely breathe... but Mint was in even worse condition. As the plant's poison set in, Mint began to yell out, and fell to the ground in delirium. She hacked up spit, and as she scraped away at her mouth in fear, blood.

As Mint writhed in panic, Robin recollected her breath and approached Ben, wheezing as she began to tend to his wounds. She had never been able to make any new kind of plant before... only basic plant matter, configured in any way she wanted it to. But what she had just made was a poison... an advanced chemical, and an intricate flower to hold it!

So if she could create new substances... Robin pressed her hand to Ben's foot, and formed a small amount of tea tree oil, infused into the series of vines she used to plug the wound and hold his foot together. That should help with some of the pain, maybe... there was a lot to look into now, and she'd need to replace the skin, bone, and muscle properly whenever she got a little time.

Blood trickled down her arm from her shoulder, but Robin chose to ignore it. She turned back to Mint.

Mint was writhing on the ground, still tearing away at her mouth and screaming in terror. The black flames were becoming wispier as time went on... soon, Mint's consciousness would recover, and she'd be feeling both the pain of her injuries on top of the manic episode she was having... Robin decided it was time to save her friend.

She sighed. She felt tired, sluggish, drowsy... her skin felt numb except for the cold trickle of blood coating her arm, torso, everything... her breathing felt heavy...

She slowly lowered herself onto her knees, and created thin vines to tie Mint's arms and legs together so she wouldn't fight back as Robin put her hand in her mouth. A long, plant tendril crept down Mint's throat, small roots sneaking through her body and absorbing the poison from everywhere it could. Robin was focused, yet hypnotised by the black flames dancing weakly... growing smaller... gravity felt stronger somehow.

The black flames seemed to rise into the air, and evaporate. Mint's eyes rolled back into her head as she fell limp momentarily, before coming to as Robin's vine pulled away from her. Before she could absorb any poison into her body, Robin snapped the root off of her palm (which she struggled with a bit more than she usually would, for some reason...), grunting weakly from the sharp pain. Her head felt light, and so disoriented that she didn't even feel it spinning.

"Are... you ok?" she asked weakly. This whole thing was kind of a gambit... she wasn't too sure of the science behind it...

"Are you?" Mint returned, her voice echoing as she gave Robin a concerned look.

Robin tried to respond, but instead just breathed heavily. She felt so cold... so numb... her head fell to the ground, and she slumped forward, unconscious.

-(2 HOURS LATER)-

Robin's eyes fluttered open gently. Instantly, she noticed that her shoulder felt heavier than usual - and soon found that it was due to the strange presence of a metal block where her wound had been. She next noticed that her clothes had been removed, and that she was covered in a towel. The whole right side of her body was stained red by her own dried blood...

She felt a kind, tired hand take hers. She looked over to see Mint looking down at her caringly.

"Ben patched your shoulder up for you... I'm sorry about your clothes, I just wanted to make sure you were all cleaned off..." Mint said, before taking a more stern expression and tone, "You were covered in your own blood! You push yourself too much..."

That was probably true. She'd found herself waking up from an injury to Mint's hospitality twice now...

But there was something much more concerning to Robin. She began to panic, and tried to pull herself up and hide her body away, but Mint just lightly pressed her back to the table.

"Don't worry, don't worry... it's ok... it's ok."

The sound of Mint's soft, caring voice... the calming presence of her warm hand on her face, brushing her hair aside... the acceptance and love from an older woman, reminding her of everything she wished her mother had done for her... it was all too much.

Robin began to sob, and felt Mint draw her into a maternal embrace. Something about the experience made Mint's eyes tear up a little bit too... they had both been so emotionally repressed due to what they had lost.

-(10 MINUTES LATER)-

Mint had left the room after comforting Robin to give her some privacy as she got dressed again. On Jewel Street, both the water and electricity still ran in every building due to the ominous presence of the residents scaring the companies away from the idea of cutting them off, so Robin's clothes had been handwashed by Ben and Mint. Still, it was clear this girl was not used to heat at all, and... she was in desperate need of a shower! But the other two had agreed not to mention it until they'd gotten her back to the compound.

Clearly Mint had seemed a little off when she left the room, as Ben seemed to notice the melancholy look on her face.

"You ok?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's just... she reminds me of Mia. So headstrong, so driven by emotion... so hard on herself. I know I shouldn't get attached to anyone out here, but..."

"But you do." Ben replied affectionately, smiling.

"Yeah." Mint agreed, returning the bittersweet smile, "You were like that for me too, remember. I don't care how macho you act, you'll always be that little boy I found digging through trash all those years back."

Ben grunted, jokingly emasculated. "Whatever... you just like saving people."

"Unlikely. I kill too many people for that to be true... protecting weak people. That's what it is."

"Oh, wow. I see how it is. You wanna take this outside? I'll put you in the ground, old lady!"

Mint laughed heartily. "Old lady? We're going there? Alright then. You and what arms, huh?"

"Woah! I'll have you know I take a lot of offense to that!" Ben defended, laughing too.

The banter continued until Robin opened the door, now dressed. The two stopped laughing and looked at her supportively, but all Robin noticed was their eyes. Just watching her... but still, these people she felt comfortable with. They were nice. She was comfortable... so why was it so hard to convince herself of that?

"You ok?" Ben asked.

Robin nodded.