The Custodes

Chapter 31 - Betrayal

And slammed into the tree bark right beside it.

The sound of the impact right by his ear caused Nexus to jolt slightly with shock, his eyes opening in confusion as he met Quinn's gaze. She dropped to her knees, her hand remaining embedded in the tree to keep her up as she leaned her head in close to Nexus'. "I never would." Quinn spoke firmly, scowling right into the man's face as he sat there, unmoving and unable to comprehend her actions "You hear me Nexus? That's the difference between you and me. I never would." Nexus simply stared at her with half lidded eyes, what little focus he had left remaining firmly on her. She didn't say anything else, her scowl melting away to form a thin, neutral line, before Nexus' head slumped against the tree and his eyes slid shut, leaving him bleeding out, unconscious, on the grass. Quinn slowly retracted her hand, causing the purple blade to cease as she instead moved it down to Nexus' stomach, whispering a single word under her breath "Mankima." With that she turned around, leaving Nexus behind completely, and instead took off running across the clearing to where Daigo lay. Relief flooded through her when she approached and saw his chest heaving, his face contorting with pain as he stared up at the sky, before she picked up her pace and dropped down beside him. "Daigo. You'll be okay, alright? Don't worry." She looked down to see that he'd sealed both the stump on his arm and on his leg with ice, effectively stopping the bleeding but no doubt enhancing the pain. "I'm-...I'm not dead..." Daigo's voice was quiet, raspy, as he continued to stare up at the sky, which was slowly starting to light up with the brightness of a new day. "No, you're not, so let's hurry up and get you healed. I'll do what I can, then Kelsie will-" Quinn cut herself off as Daigo grabbed her arm with his good hand, looking right at her with a pained expression as tears welled up in his eyes. "I should be dead...leave me, I-...I deserve it..." His voice wavered, clearly hurting now that everything had settled down and he'd had time to reflect on what had happened. "What the fuck are you talking about?" Quinn didn't have a clue why he was talking like this, as she reached over and grabbed his severed arm, pulling it back against his stump before whispering "Mankima." once again. She had no clue what her healing was going to do considering how drastic the injury was, but it seemed it couldn't even start the process while Daigo's ice blocked off the wound. "Daigo, you need to get rid of that. The healing won't work otherwise, I can't help-" "I betrayed you Quinn. And the others." Daigo still went on, true regret and guilt in his voice "I would've let you die." If Quinn hadn't trusted him before, she most certainly did now. The upset in his voice was too real to be feigned, she felt like - for the first time - she was actually witnessing Daigo's true character. And right now he was a depressed and guilt-ridden mess who wanted nothing more than to be left behind at that moment. "No, you fucking didn't." Quinn told him, sounding slightly pissed off by his attitude. Even if he was being real, he needed to man the fuck up and stop being so caught up on what he almost did. "You betrayed him. You saved my life, and because of that, in my eyes, you've earned the right to go on living." Quinn looked at him defiantly for a second, before his devastated gaze slowly settled into one of more acceptance, and the ice on his arm would dissipated away. "Mankima." Quinn said, allowing his arm to slowly begin reattaching itself, before she did the same thing with his leg while he lay there, trying not to wince in pain every couple of seconds. "And plus..." Quinn said after letting him heal for a short while, sitting back on her heels as she looked at him "...I need you to teleport me back to the others. Whether you like it or not, you aren't out of this fight yet." Daigo gave a small nod, leaning his head back against the grass as he closed his eyes before asking a fairly simple question "How'd you beat him?" Quinn pressed a hand against her throat, letting the purple glow there fade away as her spell ceased "After the first time he suffocated me I knew I needed a way to counter it. So I tried a 'resist' spell that I'd hoped would stop his powers from working in that way. Guess it worked pretty effectively." Daigo nodded a second time, before the pair fell into silence in the middle of the field. "Did you kill him?" Daigo's next question made Quinn tense slightly, but as she looked she saw that his eyes remained closed and let out a silent sigh. "Yes." She answered stiffly, her hands clasped together as she looked at the ground "I did what I had to." She wasn't sure why she was lying - the most logical conclusion she could come to was that she didn't want Daigo to have any ties to Nexus when they went on to fight Zuro. If he was worried about him, or even just remotely curious about his survival, it might result in his holding back for whatever reason. That was one thing they couldn't have - not at that stage. This time the silence between them lasted a long while, close to five minutes, before Quinn spoke up again "Can you stand?" "I don't know." Daigo answered, sitting up slightly with the assistance of his good arm. The opposite one hung limply by his side - attached, but obviously not functional yet - and it seemed the same was true for his right leg. "I might need help." Quinn gave a small nod, immediately moving to help pull the back to his feet before wrapping his arm around her neck, to support him while they stood. "Give me a second." She told him, before whispering a quiet "Gixupa." and causing her eyes to flash gold for a single instant. As soon as the locating spell had ceased her eyes widened, her eyes looking aimlessly towards the trees around them "Fuck...fuck! Shit! That god-damned bastard!" "What? What is it, Quinn, what happened?" Daigo was immediately worried by her outburst, his eyes flicking around the tree line rapidly. "It's Kelsie..." Quinn stated defeatedly, her fists clenching as she tried desperately not to lash out at anything "Nexus moved her, somewhere in the city, underground. I know where she is but...you can't teleport places without knowing them right?" Daigo nodded in confirmation, causing Quinn to mutter a string of curse words once more before rubbing her face exasperatedly. "If it's underground there's no way to tell where the entrance will be. And if we can't teleport straight there..." Quinn didn't finish the sentence, her thoughts trying to figure out some way to deal with the situation. "What do we do?" Daigo asked, clearly not coming up with anything the exact same way she wasn't. Quinn's expression tightened, regret already making its way to her features "We need to go, just us. We don't know what state the others are in, but we need to at least try and defeat Zuro. If we can, then we can go and find her once we have more time." Quinn knew there was one other option, however. Nexus was still alive, if only just, and maybe if they woke him up he would take them to Kelsie. But no - that option came with risks that far outweighed leaving Kelsie behind; Nexus could easily try to kill them again, or disappear without them, or anything of the sort. All she could do was hope that he remained unconscious until the fight with Zuro was over. After that, they would go and find Kelsie in perfect condition - it just meant they'd have to go the fight without their best healer. That notion was somewhat threatening, considering the state her and Daigo were left in after taking on only Nexus, but she just had to hope the others had already done enough damage to Zuro for them to finish him off. "Come on, Daigo, we need to go and help them." Quinn urged, looking at the man's uncertain expression "Kelsie will be safe. But we have to hurry." "Yeah...yeah, alright. Let's go kill this bastard." Daigo said firmly, his grasp on Quinn tightening slightly as he leaned against her, allowing ice to crawl up the pair rapidly and teleport them away a few seconds later.