"You're spoiling me, Trent," Lee said gratefully with a smirk as he accepted the cup of coffee and took a sip from it, "Ahhhh...that's the good stuff. Thanks Trent." He didn't get to hold on to it for too long however, as Setzer soon accepted his offer for medical treatment. "Alright big guy, you know the drill. Try not to squirm and avoid using any Mist until I'm done." He went over to Setzer's side, letting out a yawn as he did so, before he then held out his hands in front of him until they were hovering within just an inch or so of his frame, and then got to work.
First things first, he made it a point to start working on that pain and soreness issue that Setzer had been dealing with. Temporarily shutting down pain sensors in his nerves while encouraging a natural flow of endorphins to flow through his body and to his brain was something he was skilled enough at to not screw up. It was tricky and time-consuming, but it was something all students in the medical field had to learn, and it was generally considered that if someone could understand the process, then they could theoretically learn all other Mist-based medical techniques by using it as jumping off point. After all, they had to use Mist in such an acute and precise manner in order to manipulate the human body, one of the if not the most complicated system in the entire world. Lee was just lucky that acute and precise Mist usage was his forte; had he been the type to haphazardly expend Mist like it was nobody's business, or hell, even spent average amounts of it like the standard WARDEN unit, he never would've been able to pick up healing magic. He sometimes thought of it as a form of hilarious irony, that someone like him was subtle with his Mist usage when his outward persona was anything but subtle. Though speaking of Mist usage-
"Don't tell me you'd actually prefer becoming a zombie," Lee responded to Trent in hardly hidden surprise, "We've all heard the horror stories. There's...definitely no way that it would be worth it. But I guess that's just my perspective on it." Mist Burn was practically considered the boogeyman of the WARDENs. It was always drilled into everyone's heads that Mist Burn needed to be avoided at all costs, even in his medical training it was brought up as an issue since healers were technically inserting Mist into their patient's body. While Lee himself had never experienced it or ever became dangerously close to experiencing it, he knew about others back at the Citadel who'd been Burned. The ones who'd been overzealous, who'd been so desperate in proving themselves to their peers and instructors, or even just flat out ignored the dangers of Burning. The numbers weren't high, considering how the few victims there were was enough to scare most of the trainees into being more careful with their Mist usage, but the fact that there were still so many who had been Burned and had experienced (or in some cases, were still experiencing) its effects was honestly incredibly chilling. Lee really hoped that Trent would never enter such a state, he hoped none of his friends and comrades ever would, but Trent...he just didn't deserve that kind of fate.
Lee was switched out from his current train of thought when he heard Colette begin to answer Gideon's questions. At this point he had moved on to focusing his attention on Setzer's head, as a quick internal report through his body had let him know that the worst injury he'd sustained had been to his noggin. That's right, hadn't one of the robots punched him in the face, or something like that? Honestly he was surprised its fist hadn't gone straight through his head, yet as far as he could tell Setzer was barely suffering anything more than a minor concussion. Dear God, what the actual fuck was this guy? Lee was glad to have what was basically a super soldier on his side, but he was honestly kind of scared of what Setzer was capable of. No human being should be this resilient, or this incredibly strong either for that matter.
"So anyone who would know the important details is either dead, you, or your dad," Lee recounted as he listened to Colette's explanation while continuing on with the healing process, "That doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room for possible suspects, does it?" With that information, it meant that only Colette herself or the King of Vangar could have leaked the details necessary to launch yesterday's ambush, but that didn't really seem all that likely. "Of course, the traitor could actually be one of the dead," Lee suggested, "That's a possibility. One of your Dragoons could've spilled the beans, but then was killed to make sure that fact was never let out. But what are the chances of that?" It wasn't like anyone could prove it either, the dead can't speak after all.
Zimmy began to speak up after that, claiming she had death-as-punishment worthy news. As it turned out, she wasn't exaggerating, as what she told them was shocking, to say the least. Before Lee could get a word in, Colette pretty much beat him to the punch and answered all of the questions he was about to ask.
"Hey! No squirming rule, remember!?" Lee exclaimed when Setzer practically flailed in response to Colette appearing to suddenly show up. It was a simple enough illusion spell, but Lee had to admit that he hadn't been able to sense it either. "Source of Mist...?" Lee repeated slowly. Well that was news to him, but then again if it was already known he likely just hadn't been paying attention before. Though what really caught his attention was how...authoritive Colette sounded for a moment there. Had he had a death wish, he would've commented something along the lines of "That was kinda hot.", but he had enough brains to know not to push it that far, especially when they were trying to have a serious discussion. It was something Lee actually felt seriously about as well, in all honesty. Everything Zimmy had said about this group, the 'Rassvet Collections Institution', had sounded shady as all hell, and the Princess confirmed his suspicions and then some. This was definitely some conspiracy shit that was going on, and whether he liked it or not, he was now a part of it.
"Damn," Lee said simply, finishing up the healing by now and just doing a quick touch up to make sure none of Setzer's bones had been fractured or broken, "We're being screwed at every conceivable angle. I was kind of hoping that the first time I said that would have a more fun context to it, but this...this isn't fun. Not at all." He sighed, then finally lowered his hands as he stopped the flow of Mist. "Alright Setzer, nothing's broken and you don't have to worry about your possible concussion anymore. You're probably gonna be sore again later once the endorphins wear off since you sort of overexerted yourself yesterday (as usual), and I can't really do anything about that unless you just want me to give you a massage or something. I mean, I could, just putting that out there, but we probably don't have time for that." Though he wasn't sure how much Setzer had gotten of that, since he was more than eager to get going on the road again. Right, they probably should sooner rather than later. It wouldn't be good to stay in one spot for long.
Lee kept most of his stuff in the truck, so he didn't have much of anything to pack up. Cleaning up their camping supplies wouldn't take long, and he figured it was probably better if he left it to the others, partially because they'd know where to put it away in the truck, and partially because he was too lazy to help out with that. Once inside the truck, he tried to relax for a moment and sort his thoughts, but he kept hearing a banging noise. He was about to ask what was making such an annoying sound, but then he heard Zimmy call for him, and he quickly realized she'd been the one making the noise. With a sigh, he got up from his seat and made his way over to her. He eyed the dent in the truck side next to her, and then glanced down at her currently bruising hand. It wasn't hard to put two and two together here.
"...So you tried to fight several tons of steel and lost, right?" Lee asked rhetorically. His little quips usually had some 'zest' to them, you could say, but it fell flat this time considering the mood at the moment. He looked down and away for a moment before turning back to her and continuing, "I'll fix you up, if your hand isn't broken it shouldn't take long." He sat down across from her and took her hand into one of his, while he let his free hand hover just above her's as he began the healing process. Kill the pain, assess the damage, patch it up one bit at a time. Same process, different subject.
"You did the right thing, you know?" Lee told her after a round of awkward silence, "Punching the truck I mean. Not the 'accidentally joining a cult' thing, that's pretty bad. But letting out whatever you're feeling is the best thing you can do right now, trying to hold that kind of shit in will just eat away at you." The melancholic smile from before returned, but it was a little more subdued this time as he was trying to focus on her hand. "But I think you also did the right thing by telling us. That had to take a lot of courage, more than I've got at least."
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