TO couldn't move. They couldn't move, couldn't talk, couldn't even open their eyes! no matter how hard they tried, it was as though their body simply wouldn't listen to them. With all their struggling, the most they could do was whimper softly, and twitch their foot.

"Shhh... Just relax. you're ok." DH's voice cut through the panic, and a moment later TO felt their mate lay next to them, their cool hand sliding under their neck and scratching at the base of their skull. The events of the last day were still jumbled and foggy, and they couldn't remember what had happened once they got to the ship, but if DH said that they were ok then TO was willing to believe that.

For a while they rested, allowing their thoughts to drift until true consciousness coalesced, drawn together to the dull, throbbing pain in their body. With a groan they finally opened their eyes to the dim lights of their ship's small living quarters glowing overhead as they lay on their bed. They groaned as they tried to sit up, but next to them DH made a soft shushing sound and put their hand on TO's chest, holding them down gently.

"Stay down." they said softly. "Try not to move for a bit. You need to heal up."

TO groaned again, but did as DH said and lay back. still, they couldn't relax now; their mind was awake, and insisted on answers. "The fleet." they groaned, turning slightly to face DH, "What happened-"

"We lost them." DH said, once more trying to keep TO from sitting up by draping an arm over their chest, "They didn't even do anything to Arkane, not yet anyway."

"I have to get up." TO said as more thoughts rushed through their head, "Avery, are they-"

"Unconscious, but stable." DH said. "Goretta and I were able to stop the bleeding pretty quickly." They hugged TO close, "Please... just stay down and rest."

"No, there's more, I-" they tried to get up, but their right leg wasn't responding. They could feel it, sure, and they could kind of move it, but they couldn't bend their knee. They struggled to sit up but they were still physically weak, and DH was easily able to keep them down. "TO, please... I'm not joking, and I'm not just being cautious. You need to stay down."

"My leg. I can't bend it." They said, reaching down with their hand to try to feel their knee. "What happened?"

"I'll answer all your questions." DH said as they curled in to TO, "But you have to promise to stay lying down, alright?"

"But there's so much to do!"

"The ship is designed to be run by two people." DH said, "Between myself, Flit, and Snout, we can handle all the hard work with relative ease.

"Can I at least sit up?"

"I'd rather you wait a day or so" DH said, "If you don't you might hurt yourself, and have to wait longer to recover properly"

TO sighed, "Fine." They groaned. In truth, though they felt they had so much to do they were grateful for DH's insistence that they rest as their body ached, and their mind felt heavy. "Why can't I move my knee?"

DH nuzzled into TO's shoulder, "...The shot to your knee shattered the bones entirely." they said. "There was no saving it."

TO's eyes widened as their ears dropped. The image of Flit's stump, the gnarled scarred end, and the prosthetic leg they always wore came to their mind "My leg... It's gone?"

"oh! No. No no no." DH held TO close, "No... Your leg is fine TO, I promise." They clutched at TO. "...But, I had to remove the shattered bone, and use a temporary knee joint to keep things in place

"... Use what?" TO frowned, still reaching to try to feel what DH was talking about.

"Right. so uh." they looked over towards the computers, "In case of emergencies, we do have medical grade materials for printing certain medical aids." DH said, "I mean, we can't have supplies to deal with every eventuality, right?" They gave a nervous chuckle, "So if you need certain materials or medical aids, you just print it if you don't have it." They leaned in, "So... I printed a temporary one while your knee heals. It'll keep everything in place until we can sort out a more permanent solution."

"And... what's the permanent solution?" TO asked.

"I don't know." DH said. "We won't know until your leg's healed up. For now, the best think you can do is rest."

"But what options might there be-"

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"There's lots we can do." DH said, "But please don't worry about it now."

TO lay back uneasily, their mind still spinning and seeming to grab at whatever it could. "Constance." They said, "I have to tell her-"

"Pearla's talked to her." DH said, "TO... You don't realize, I think, how badly you're hurt. Your knee was the worst, but you had a lot of injuries. There's an awful burn in your back, your shoulder was messed up..." they stopped, and held TO close, "You were hurt badly." They whispered. "And there were complications while you were out. I had to do surgery." They looked up at TO, "I didn't know if you'd get through it."

TO could feel DH shaking against them, could hear the soft crack in their voice as they clung to TO's chest. TO pressed their cheek to DH's head, unable to embrace them properly as they were still in a lot of pain. "I'm sorry." They whispered. "I didn't try to get hurt."

"I know." DH said, "But... we're away from Arkane now. We're safe. We just have to wait until we get to ScrapRock, so please... Just rest. for me?"

For now, they were safe. They were on their ship with a lot of people, but with people who knew that DH was TO's mate, and who didn't have any issue with that. The ship was filled with allies, friends and family.

They pressed their lips to the top of DH's head before nuzzling them softly. "Ok." They whispered, "For you... I'll rest for a little."

======

The tunnels under Arkane stank. It stank back in that awful solitary room, it stank in the operating room where Kei found themself bound for days, and it stank in the makeshift prison the insurgents kept them in. Kei thought they'd be use to the stink by now, but once they finally got out of the ancient, crumbling tunnels where the insurgents hid and got into the main sewers, the stink became unbearable.

"The exit is a little bit further ahead." the small squid-like creature said as they crawled forward on the ceiling. "Just keep going if you can."

Kei grunted, but continued on. The creature's name started with O, they knew that much, but they hadn't bothered to remember it. The creature mentioned their name when Kei was in the medical room, speaking quietly though a nearby vent, making a plan for freedom for the two of them. "Look, you're a synth right? I can help get you out of here, but I'll need your help after that."

The help that the creature wanted was simply for Kei to clear the crime of indebtedness once they got out of the tunnels, and use their own ship to get them off the planet. Kei had promised to do what they could, despite the fact that they technically had no authority on this planet yet, and the fact that their ship was orbiting Arkane without them.

Their injured leg hit something obscured by the opaque viscous sludge of the sewers, and they yelped in pain. The sudden intake of rancid air caused them to gag and vomit up the last quick meal they had before their escape earlier that day.

the creature sighed as they watched Kei. "Your leg?" They asked, "Tio got you good, yeah?"

Kei spit and wiped their mouth, "They were lucky." they hissed, their ears pinning back. They really didn't believe in luck, but what else could it have been? Kei was better than TO! they worked just as hard as TO did in training, they had the same kind of mind now which was supposed to have granted TO their enhanced mental powers, but they didn't have the same flaws as TO, the deviancy. Kei had been willing to do whatever it took to achieved their goals without hesitation. The mathematics of the solution had been clear, and they approached the problem with no emotion. Meanwhile, TO had been tied up and heavily injured. How then did that defect get the best of them?

"We should keep going." the creature said as they watched Kei. "You have raw sewage against open wounds. I'm not a doctor, but I think that's bad."

"Exceedingly." Kei snapped.

"If you had followed the plan, we'd be out of the tunnels already" they said, "I mean, we were lucky that your friend came to visit you-"

"Avery was not my friend." Kei hissed, "They are responsible, in part, for... for what has happened to me"

The creature made a motion with their tentacles which felt like a shrug, "I mean, they came just to check on you, they told you what the plan was, and then you managed to convince them to unlock your bindings so you could use the washroom yourself. I don't think they'd have done all that if they weren't a friend."

"They were careless." Kei said, "A quick observation of the area would have shown to them that I had a catheter in. They should have been more careful."

"Then it's even more of a lucky break!" they said, "And yet, you squandered the biggest string of luck I've ever seen for what? For revenge?"

"To fix a mistake." Kei said. They wanted to say that it wasn't about revenge. They wanted to say that they were above such petty, civilian motives... but it had felt so damn good to shoot TO in the knee, and even better to kick them when they were tied. when they thought they might actually kill TO, there was a moment of what they could only describe as joy... but that was only because they were finally fixing their mistake.. right?

maybe they hadn't approached the situation with pure cold logic. Perhaps emotions had played a larger part than they thought, and that was what led to their failure. Well, if that was the case, then at least they had uncovered the problem. Now, they just had to fix it.

"Whatever" The creature said, "Let's get you out so you can clear my record up on the surface, and then we can get off this planet before it blows up"

"Very well." Kei said. They took a breath though their mouth to lessen the affect of the stench, steadied themself on the slimy wall, and continued forward.

Outis; that was the creatures name. Kei's plan for escape had worked, but Outis was the missing link in their success. Biting off their finger and spitting it at TO had given them an odd satisfaction in seeing such a presumably successful synth sway and faint at the sight of blood, but more importantly it had pushed that civilian butcher, Goretta, to move them from the prison to the much less secure medical room.

That was where Outis had seen them.

They looked down at their finger. The bandages still covered the wound but they knew they'd have a scar when it finally healed; Goretta told them as much.

They didn't mind. That scar was proof of how far they would go to achieve their goa