Crobot

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"I was trying to tell you the truth," Nicholas mumbled without looking at her, still lying on his stomach. "You weren't listening. You were dead set on still hating Jacob. I get it. I get he hurt you, I get he tried to kill you. I don't think you understand that he wasn't in his right mind. He was...brainwashed. By those stupid pieces of shit. You're the one who put your hands on me first." He was breathing hard again, and he buried his face in the pillow again and spoke through it with a muffled voice, "I wasn't trying to hurt you. That could've been you who had this big ass hole in your back."

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Jacob ignored Mattie's outburst. He'd figured she'd be as angry with him, and he knew it was well deserved. In response to Nicholas he said, "She'll be safe, don't worry. Not only can she take care of herself, but we'll have scouts."

"Yeah," Nicholas said. "Alright. I get it." He paused and chewed on his bottom lip for a minute before saying, "And Alice?"

Any light that was visible in Jacob's eyes was now diminished. His lips pressed into a thin line and he looked away from his brother, saying, "Alice...won't be coming. We'll talk about that later. This is bigger than us. I need to eat and my keys are still outside. Want anything?"

The rapid subject change surprised Nicholas, and because of that, he could only suspect the worst had happened to his brother's lover. This new information needed to simmer in his brain before he could fully process it. When he responded to Jacob, he sounded far away in his own mind. Things were happening too fast. "Yeah," he said, "Um...uh, just, two chicken burgers, large fries, and a chocolate milkshake." He glanced at Mattie and said, "Get her four burgers, two large fries, a peach milkshake, and a large orange soda."

Jacob clicked his tongue, pulled out his wallet, counted his money, then shoved it back into his pocket. "Alright. But you owe me when you get paid." Then he walked out the door.

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Nicholas turned his head to the sound of the rustling, and looked at Mattie as she sat up. His eyes lit up in relief to see that she was okay, but he could still see the fear and confusion in her own eyes. "Mattie," he said softly. Jacob had grabbed the bloodied shard from the dresser and was now in the bathroom, where sounds of running water could be heard. Which left Nicholas and Mattie partially alone for a moment. But there was nothing that Nicholas could say to her. He'd probably ruined all of her trust in him. So he swallowed past the growing lump in his throat and buried his head in the pillow in front of him without saying another word.

"Bad news and good news," Jacob said as he came out of the bathroom. He stopped in his tracks when he saw Mattie sitting up. He nodded at her, said, "Glad to see you're awake," then continued with his original proclamation. "Nick, this is a shard of obsidian, and it was poisoned. That's the bad news. Which means...either you happened to land on it by sheer miraculous coincidence, someone stabbed you with it while you were in the air and amazingly neither of you noticed, or someone knew exactly where you two were going to land and sabotaged you." His eyebrows raised and he shook his head in awe. "The fact that...this happened, is amazing. We've been hiding out for so long. The good news is that I got it out in time before much poison could transfer to you."

Jacob sat the newly-cleaned shard on the dresser again. He crossed his arms and faced his brother, who was now looking at him. "The fact that this happened is going to set off our plans for another few weeks while you heal. I can't have you out there fighting with a gaping hole in your back. It will compromise our position. Mattie's-" he paused and glanced at the woman in question, "-not looking like she's going to be willing to help us."

"As long as we keep her safe," Nicholas muttered.

Ban the Person above you

Banned because SPONGEBOB DID SAY THAT QUOTE.

Men vs. Women Race to 1000

-421

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It was very evident that Mattie was not, in fact, okay. Neither Nicholas nor Mattie were okay at the moment -- and Jacob had no earthly idea what the hell had happened. One minute, he was walking out to go get a damn meal, and the next minute these two were all but dying in front of him. He was irritated, but more frantic than irritated. They needed immediate medical attention. Although the pool of blood around Nicholas was steadily growing, Jacob knew the limits of his brother and knew that he could withstand a few more minutes of bleeding out. So Jacob gathered Mattie in his arms -- she was surprisingly light -- and rushed her into the motel room. It was a good idea to get them both in before someone else saw. She wasn't bleeding. Wait, yes she was. She had a tear in her wing, the wing that Jacob remembered ripping years ago. He winced at the memory, laying her on one of the two beds.

Next he had to get Nicholas in. Nicholas was significantly heavier than Mattie, but Jacob had carried him a couple of times before. The hard part was that Nicholas was now half-conscious and obviously not in his right mind. He kept struggling in Jacob's hold. "Stop," Jacob hissed. "I'm trying to save your life, again."

"Is Mattie okay?" Nicholas groaned.

"She's fine, she just had a breakdown and passed out. What stabbed you?" No response. Jacob drug Nicholas into the room, slammed the door shut, and threw his brother on the other bed. "Lay on your stomach," he commanded him, but walked over to Mattie. He gently turned her over onto her stomach as well, lifting her shirt to inspect her wing. There was only a minor tear, from what he could see on the outer appearance. Nothing that couldn't be fixed immediately. His hands hovered over her wing, omitting a faint, green light, and within three solid minutes, the tear had healed and scarred over.

"Now," Jacob said, turning to Nicholas, who had obeyed his command and was lying on his stomach with his shirt already pulled up. "Let's see what you've got here. Hold still." There was a shard of something sticking out of Nicholas' back, covered in blood. Jacob's eyebrows knitted together, and he grabbed hold of the shard, then slowly began to extract it from his brother's skin, eliciting a very loud, shrill, and pained scream from Nicholas. He began to squirm. "Hold still," Jacob hissed. "I can't get it out if I can't grip it. It's bloody and slippery."

"It's bloody?!"

"Well, yeah, it stabbed you." A tight grip and a yank, and the shard was out of Nicholas' back and in Jacob's hand. Nicholas screamed again as blood started pouring out even quicker from the gaping wound that the shard left behind. Jacob sat the bloody shard on the dresser top, pulled open a drawer and retrieved a roll of gauze and a bottle of rubbing alcohol, then faced Nicholas again.

"I know what's coming," Nicholas moaned pathetically. "You're gonna pour alcohol on it."

"Got to," Jacob snickered, reaching in the bedside table and pulling out a dry towel. He soaked it in alcohol and pressed it to the bleeding wound on Nicholas' back. Another scream. Actually, a series of shrill screams, and then Nicholas went limp again, but not unconscious. Jacob laid gauze over the wound, then taped it to his skin with medical tape. "Now, I'm not a doctor," he said, "but I think I did a pretty good job patching you up."

The gauze was turning a pinkish color even as Jacob stood and watched. The wound would have been too much to heal through his powers. It was definitely going to need stitches -- but Jacob didn't have those here.

"Kill me," Nicholas groaned. "Kill me because nothing matters now anyway."

"Oh, shut up. You're alive, she's alive, and we can work this out." Jacob rolled his eyes and carefully turned Mattie back onto her back, fetched a cold, damp cloth from the bathroom, and laid it on her forehead. "Stay on your stomach," he said Nicholas. "If you lay on your back, it's going to hurt. A lot."

"I'm sorry, Mattie," was all Nicholas said.

"She can't hear you, bud. She's out cold. Not hurt, just out." Jacob put a finger to the vein in Mattie's neck -- her pulse was quick, but slowing the longer she laid there. "She's gonna be fine. Don't worry. You're both gonna be fine. You've lived through worse."

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It was instinct.

He couldn't help it when his wings re-spread and he found himself chasing after Mattie through the sky. She was always considerably faster than him when it came to flying, running, or anything in general, but his sheer rage fueled his speed as he pumped his wings faster, faster, and eventually enough to catch up with her. They were, luckily, in the desolate part of town when he collided with her, wrapping his arms and his wings around her. He was growling and panting, and he didn't even register Mattie's screams or his own as they plummeted to the ground. Something clicked inside of his head, and he immediately positioned himself so that when they made impact with the ground, Mattie would land on him and he would take the damage.

They miraculously landed in front of the motel that Nicholas and Jacob had been staying at. And guess who happened to be coming out?

Obviously, Jacob was dumbfounded. His brother and his brother's ex(girlfriend) thing had just landed in front of him in what appeared to be the aftermath of a fight. Everything was eerily still for the first few minutes, and then Jacob dropped his keys and rushed over to the scene.

Nicholas was disoriented. Very disoriented. Something had stabbed him and it was hurting. He still had an iron grip around Mattie, but felt himself being pried away from her. He heard his name being called. Over. And over. And over.

A slap to the face brought him out of his confusion. "What?!" he snarled, throwing his arm in a useless punch that didn't hit anything.

"What are you doing?! What have you done?!" Jacob shook him like a rag doll, voice raised.

Nicholas tried to push Jacob away, but found his strength to be failing him. He looked for Mattie -- was she hurt? Did he hurt her? Oh God, did he hurt her? What stabbed him?

"Did I hurt her? Did I hurt her?" he kept asking.

"She's fine," Jacob growled, practically throwing Nicholas on the ground only to pick him back up by his shirt. "What did you tell her? What did you do?"

Nicholas shook his head, then went limp in Jacob's hold, blood pooling around him.

"Mattie," Jacob said, turning his attention toward the woman. He was prepared to defend himself. He seemed to be completely ignoring the emergency state that Nicholas was in. "Are you hurt?"

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The heat from Nicholas' palms finally poured out and his fists were set aflame. His eyes were burning red and a deep growl was ripped from his throat when he was shoved backward. "You're not getting it!" he boomed in a voice that seemed too deep and too gravelly to be his, opening his fists so quick that a ball of fire was dispensed downward onto the concrete from each hand, leaving behind black burn marks. His wings twitched and spread instinctively, ripping through his shirt. They'd faded from their original light brown to a dark black-gray over the years he'd been away from her. They flapped once, retracted and folded, spread out again, then folded once again.

"You're going to die if we don't do something about this and I'm trying to keep that from happening!"

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"I told you why!" Nicholas immediately shot back a snarl at her, revealing his own razor-sharp pearly whites. He made no attempt to step back, keeping the same close distance that he happened to be at when she stopped short. His palms were heating up as he kept them clenched into fists. "That bitch was going to kill me. I was on the ground. It was pathetic. I thought for sure he was going to kill her and me both. I...blacked out," his voice had softened now. "I woke up on his couch. He's got a place a couple cities over. He helped me. I helped him." Then, his rage seemed to come back to him. A flash of red passed through his eyes, and he stomped his foot while saying. "He's still my brother."

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Personal space was not something that Nicholas wanted to give Mattie at the moment. He was right on her heels as she headed for the door. "Mattie," he said again, "It's okay! He's...well, I mean, I get-- agh. He's changed. Oh my God, that sounds so bad, but it's true. He saved my life. He...he saved my life. I mean, I know he tried to kill you, but he was...different then. He wasn't right in the head. He saved my life, he...if it weren't for him, I wouldn't even be standing here talking to you."