And every night, I'll be with you

The One I Always Return To

Something felt wrong that morning, so Silver ran a bit faster during their routine jog.

"I'm glad you're able to keep up," Elise joked from behind him, "But you're not being chased either!"

"Sorry," Silver said from over his shoulder, "I just need to get some extra energy out this morning, apparently."

Elise laughed, keeping her own pace steady. The sound of her laugh helped Silver relax by the tiniest hair. Nothing bad ever happened during their runs. If anything, it was the most relaxing part about the day. Why this day felt different was something Silver was about to find out.

It was Elise who noticed the odd mass first. The mass looked to be mostly turquoise, and curled into a ball that couldn't have been much larger than Silver. Splotches of both red and reddish-brown decorated its fur. What made up for what could have been clothing was torn. When Silver finally recognized the form, he let out a terrified, "Saga!" before rushing to his friend's side.

Sure enough, it was his feline friend in a state next to death. The patches of red was blood, several wounds still bleeding over. The hair that had fallen out of Saga's braid was matted and clung to her face. As Silver tried to pick her up, he flinched as her arm bent in a direction that was certainly unnatural. He needed to find a pulse, but he was likewise afraid that it would endanger her status further.

All sense of comprehension was lost as Silver clung to his friend. He didn't notice Elise's gasp of shock when she caught up to him. Nor did he see her run to a nearby guard and requested they send help. As worried tears filled Silver's eyes, there was only one question he could ask in a shuttered breath.

"Saga, what did you do...?"

. . .

It took two doctors to get Saga into a stable state; one human Soleanna native, and one Mobian named Dr. Quack who had to be called in from Empire City. The Mobian doctor was the one who pulled Silver aside after most of the harder work was done.

"I'm not going to lie, it was touch and go for awhile." the duck admitted. "However, once we were able to find a suitable blood donor, she has been pretty responsive to treatments after. It will be hard to gauge when the rest of her body will follow."

"That's good," Silver said in monotone. Shock had given way to emotional numbness about an hour ago now. There wasn't much doubt that the moment his head touched a pillow, Silver would be out cold.

"She is a fighter though," Dr Quack then mused. "She'll have plenty of good years to follow as long as she doesn't do... whatever happened to her often."

The doc then looked Silver over.

"Speaking of," Dr Quack said to him, "Does she have a history of harming herself? While suturing most of her wounds, some appeared to be self-inflicted. Is that normal?"

Silver's immediate flinch made the notion quite obvious. Of course it was normal. When Saga couldn't force herself to shift back into their universe, she took drastic measures. Especially if it was a place she immediately hated, or was in severe danger to begin with. Silver had always hated that Saga found it necessary to hurt herself that way. It didn't give her any more control than consuming five cups of coffee before noon. Silver worried for her. He couldn't stop her either- and that was what hurt the most.

Dr Quack could surmise as much just by looking at Silver's reaction.

"Interesting," was what the doc said. "We'll keep that in mind when she wakes up. Thank you for your answers, I know this event can't be easy on you."

Silver gave the doctor a nod, refusing to look him in the eye now. Not long after Dr Quack went back to Saga's hospital room, Elise came to visit Silver.