"And I love you. Remember that." She said in return, fixing him with a long look before swallowing and stepping through the open door. The barren room had already been set up thanks to the tall woman in the corner. Brunette, pretty, taller than Clara even, the woman was solidly built and seemingly unconcerned by the task at hand. The heavy box she had brought in had been opened up, unfolded like it was nothing to create a flat surface atop a metal table. Atop it was the droid build. From the door it was difficult to see but a portion of the scalp had been peeled away along with the metal plate on the skull to expose the reinforced crystal insert. Conductive wires had been fashioned to it, their ends left to dangle for the time being. Next to the table sat a chair, just slightly reclined in similar fashion to a dentist's chair. There seemed to be no restraints or anything of the sort. "Alright....we'll need the sword set aside....but once it is....go ahead and sit and get comfortable."

He held her gaze while he could and looked around the room. It wasn't quite the sterile medical facility he'd been imagining, but then....it didn't really have to be when he gave it some thought. If anything, the bunker was as good as he could hope for. The sight of the droid on the table was mildly unnerving, especially the peeled scalp. But he'd seen much worse and it didn't put him off as much as current events that were unfolding. Sain moved and stepped beside the chair, looking over at the droid and then back to his hand around the blade. It was best he not be able to reach the sword, so he flicked a hand and it sailed smoothly to the wall, where it slowly sunk into the stone halfway to the hilt. He sat back onto the chair and got as comfortable as he could, holding up one wrist to Clara. "What about these?" The cuffs on his wrists would be as effective as the sword at suppressing Eolai, he guessed that was the issue with the sword.

What he didn't see was the closed room next door. The entirety of their preparations had gone into the other room since ultimately, there was nothing medical that would occur in the room they were in at the moment. Her gaze flickered over to the wall as the sword sank into it, the moment vaguely reminiscent of the day they had met. The thought made her fingers tingle though she worked the feeling out with a few flexions of her hand. Once Sain sat, she considered his question but instead addressed the woman in the room with them. "After we're hooked up, close all four doors and wait for Doctor Al'amin topside. You'll get the signal when we're done. Wait ten minutes before coming down. When all's said and done, Chip will make sure you and the Doc are compensated as previously agreed upon." Clara and Ash had gone through this a hundred times so really there was little need for conversation to discuss it. For all that she may have worried about the younger girl, ultimately it wasn't the woman's business to pry beyond what she had already been told. A single nod acknowledged the orders so Clara stepped over and offered her hands out to the woman, palm down. Ash took the dangling ends that connected to the crystal insert and stuck them to the backs of the teenaged engineer's hands and fingers with electrical tape. Instantly Clara felt the connection with the life-crystal, the subtle thrum of latent energy waiting for an imprint. Inhaling, she turned back to Sain as Ash left the room, pulling the heavy door shut behind her. Before he could argue, Clara swung a leg over his lap to straddle him. That close, she could feel every drop of excess energy as it rolled off of him. It very well could have made her blood boil in her veins for all of its power but she was undaunted in her mission and her pervasive calm seemed stronger than ever. Her hands, perfectly still as they were, were set to either side of his neck in much the same way she typically did for more in depth healing. Perched on his lap, she fixed him with a muted smile. "I love you, Sain. Take them off for me..."

She straddled him and he forced himself to suppress as much of the energy as he could to keep her from getting too much of it. If she died from the output she got from touching him then they were all dead. Her friends included. He looked into her eyes and didn't break the gaze as the straps on the cuffs came undone on each wrist simultaneously. "Clara....." He whispered softly. "I'm afraid." He barely breathed the words before he smiled at her. Complete and utter trust in his eyes as he spoke with a stronger voice. "I love you too. I'll see you on the other side. Of the table."

He managed a tiny humorless laugh, short lived as the cuffs fell to the floor with a solid pair of thunks. It took a fraction of a second and the power he'd tried so hard to suppress flooded from him. Without the sword and without the cuffs the raw energy that reared its head was something to behold. Unbridled arcane sigils flowed like water from his skin over the chair as his heartbeat pulsed with a terrifying beat that seemed to resonate with reality itself. Every breath he took shook the shelter, shook the ground, shook the air. Black flooded over his body and his eyes flashed gold. His hair turned a deep burnished golden color, talons formed on his hands, fangs tearing from his gums. The mage called Eolai spoke with a thousand voices and the multiverse around them trembled.

"Hello Clara." The monster beneath her was what Sain had fought his entire life. What had spawned a worldwide order dedicated to exterminating its kind. What had pushed that order to a level of unimaginable cruelty because of what these things could, would, and had done. It would immediately be clear to her why, for all of Sain's warnings and all her doubts, Sain was afraid. Why he gave her that gun. Eolai shone like an eclipse, his body dark and yet glowing from within to create an unnerving mixture of light and darkness that played tricks on the mind. He smiled with a mouth full of inhuman teeth.

Sain was gone before she could say anything else and in his place was something else entirely. She could feel the ground beneath them rumble, could feel her teeth rattle with the sheer force of the power that spilled from the mage. It hurt on a molecular level, everything felt like it was vibrating violently. But the girl who never ran at the right times didn't pull away from him. She didn't so much as jump as the change overtook him. Her hands stayed exactly where she had set them, her fingers curling around the back of his neck while her ankles curled around the legs of the chair, anchoring herself to him. She could feel his very essence echoing beneath her fingertips, violent and destructive and....beautiful. Her thumbs gently caressed his jaw line, her eyes on his. A smile flickered, just a flash in the dark before it flared to life, something bright and brilliant and brave, a starshine smile that spoke of a thousand galaxies and a thousand suns. It was a smile he had once asked for and she gave it over without hesitation. "Hi Eolai." She said softly, her breathing slowing more than it already was. "How're you feeling?"

The thousand galaxies in her smile swirled through his eyes in gold flecks that spoke of time and space being mere playthings at his feet. "I feel incredible." He said truthfully. Eolai knew what was happening to him on some level. Because Sain knew. But Sain wasn't what mattered right now. She smiled at him and his head canted to one side. "You're not angry anymore?" Even as he spoke the words his voice echoed a thousand possibilities of what he could have said, a cacophony of questions that all pointed to the same girl, pointed to the same mage sitting beneath her radiating a power that put Sain's warnings to shame. Everything Eolai had done until that moment paled in comparison, making it obvious this was the true extent of an Itherian mage's power. Sain had spoken the truth, if they didn't stop the collapse now, Eolai knew he would only get more and more powerful....until he tore reality apart around him. The girl straddling him fearlessly was the only thing that stood between him and a ruined world outside those doors.

"This, you, it's the definition of incredible." She knew that in the grand scope of things she was but a speck, a single second in an infinite set of realities. There were exactly zero reasons for him to not ruin her right then and there and she didn't think even the ring on her index finger could keep her from his wrath should his whims decide to cast her aside. None of it mattered though. "Eolai....I was never angry..." There was a brief failing in her smile but she managed to rouse it once more. To explain the difference between hurt and anger, would any of it really matter or make a difference" She doubted it. "All I ever really wanted was for you to be happy....even if it was without me. I just didn't anticipate it would sting so much when that was the case. But it's okay....all of it's gonna be okay, right?"

Eolai reached up and touched her face with an index finger, the fingertip tracing across her lips and to the corner of her mouth. "You sent me away." He said as images of that moment replayed around them a hundred times over, from different angles and viewpoints before everything around them went dark. "You wanted me to be happy." Eolai smiled, but it was a dark and terrible thing to see, holding none of the light that so dazzled him once upon a time. From the darkness around them could be heard all manner of things unspeakable, monsters and demons, horrors that knew not the meaning of light. Eolai rent asunder the barriers between the worlds, souls of the dead cried out in agony from a thousand hells and the depths of a maelstrom of the void howled a fury no mortal had ever heard. Yet there in the center Eolai and Clara sat peacefully. "All I wanted was your smile."

Another form of Eolai stood beside the table and looked at her. "Your laugh."

"Mourn me." Another said from behind her.

"Remember my name." And another.

And another. "Forgive me."

"Let me live in peace."

"Let me die already."

"JUST SHOOT ME!"

"I'm so sorry Clara."

"I loved you from the moment I saw you."

"You're my best friend right?"

"It's gonna be okay."

"No matter what....I'll never hurt you."

"I Hate You."

"Why can't I be better?"

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry for it." She was, that much was evident in the pull of her mouth, her lips twisting beneath his touch. Still she didn't shy away even when confronted with the flickers of the memory dancing around her. The dark settled but her grip stayed true. In a position like that there could be nothing but closeness and she gave him exactly that, so close that he might be able to feel the slow, steady inhale and exhale of her breathing. It didn't so much as falter as he overwhelmed her from every angle with more input that anyone should have been able to take. Briefly her lashes fluttered, her breath hitching in her chest. Her countenance refused to crack though and when she reopened her eyes fully, she locked them on his. Eolai, this Eolai, was her only focus, the only one that mattered. He was the first, the first she had unabashedly given herself to, heart and body alike, and even though he wasn't hers, there was still plenty of her that was his.

"Eolai." She whispered his name, just a single breath in the din of it all. "Focus on me....I'll see you through, just focus on me. You want to live, you told me yourself. You want to breathe with your own lungs. You want to be free of the dark of another being's mind. You want to be remembered as something more than a monster." They were his words, words that had spilled from his own lips once upon a time when Clara had asked him to fight and she repeated them to him now, damn near word for word. "You didn't even have to pretend..." She murmured, referring to the fact he had once pretended she loved him, if only for a taste of something he thought he'd never have.

So many times she'd called his bluffs, so many times he'd threatened to simply end her or use her in one way or another. Here beneath her was Eolai, as monstrous as ever he would be. Still she leaned down and whispered his name and he knew. He knew by the the way the real monsters in the dark quieted. He knew by the agony of a thousand hells that faded into nothingness. By the horrors that found their own worlds to haunt. Eolai looked at her as his shades silenced themselves and blew away into dust and all that remained was her and him in a quiet bunker. His heart thudded in his chest and the power of an Itherian mage pulsed with each resounding beat.

"Do it." He said quietly. A single voice. His voice. "Do it now Clara..." He leaned up and kissed her softly. "I should have told you." His voice a whisper.

"If there's one thing I've realized over the past few weeks, it's to not underestimate that girl in the other room." Amara said with a wan smile. Only a handful of implements were needed though that didn't make it a basic procedure. "And besides, if her mother ever finds out I did this, she'll likely kill me herself." Not as though joking would make either of them feel better. A heavy thud denoted the removal of the first two plates. They were a layered blend of metals similar to Clara's rings. If he counted the rings on her fingers he might have even found a few to be missing. Before Amara could make the first cut though, a blood curdling scream cut through the air and a few moments later, Ash burst through the door.

"Somethin's seriously wrong, Doc. We need you over here." The brunette panted. There was a diagonal splatter of red that left its garish mark on the woman but the doctor, scalpel in hand, didn't budge.

"She'll have to wait. Keep her comfortable in the meantime." The doctor said after a moment.

"Amara" she's just a kid" ya gotta?" Ash protested only for Amara to cut her off.

"And she's a kid that will be dead regardless if I don't finish this in time. You know the stakes, Lyra. You understood the order when you agreed to it." Before Ash could argue further, another cry came from the other room. The lights dimmed then went out completely for nearly ten seconds. When they came back on, another person occupied the room. Dark haired and silver eyed, the woman stood across the table from the doctor, her argent gaze on the mage.

"Enough quibbling ladies. Finish your tasks." Kate's voice was firm, aethereal in its command. She turned her hand palm up to Eolai. "I owe you one, yes?"

Eolai rested on the table until Ash burst into the room. His eyes flashed dangerously as his heartbeat raced and a surge of energy unlike anything he'd ever felt tore through his body. Amara would find his skin quite impenetrable even as she explained things to Ash. He nearly sat up and wiped them both from existence so he could flash Clara to the best hospital in Rhy'din when Kate saved both their lives by showing up. Likely she saved the life of everyone in that shelter. He wouldn't forget it, but nor would he feel he owed her either. This made them even after all. He nodded to her quietly and offered his hand to her. "I hope you're not looking to me for any sort of direction. I'm likely going to be rather preoccupied. Take what you need Kate. I assume you are here only to protect your charge....that's all I care about. So we're even if she lives through this." He said simply. Goddess, spirit, titan, witch....he didn't know exactly what Kate was. Perhaps she was some culmination of all of those things. But he knew if Clara died....even Kate would have trouble reining him in. He would visit a fury upon this world they would remember for decades to come. "And....thanks. For coming. Regardless of your reason." He knew she thought this was all folly, a fool's errand in pursuit of a promise made by an ignorant child.

"I saw what you did. Or tried to do." Kate said softly as Ash left the room. Amara looked confused, as if she didn't understand why she was doing just what the woman had asked of her but Kate paid the doctor no mind. Her fingers brushed the mage's hair back before she took his hand in hers. Her grip was solid and instantly a wash of energy was offered to counter that which he put out. It was an infinite amount more than Clara could have ever harnessed but the signatures were similar in nature. Though she sought to ground the mage as much as she could she also offered him a glimpse into the other room. Kate stood over the girl in the other room in much the same fashion, their hands interlocked just like Kate and Eolai's. With the connection he could even feel Clara's heartbeat, slow, erratic, but still there. "You're going to fix her." Kate told him. "I'll show you how but you'll be the one to do it, because you can, you must. You're more than you were so refocus that rage and bring her back."

Eolai gripped her hand like his life depended on it, but shook his head. Part of him argued even as he tried to do as she asked. But he didn't know what he was supposed to do. "I'm....I'm not..." He looked up at her uncertainly, the tide of energy between them an ebb and flow as he met the power she brought to the fore with a wave of his own. "I'll try." He said quietly. All he could do was imagine that smile. Brilliant as the rising sun, beautiful in a way he'd never be able to describe. The energy Kate let flow into him reminded him of Clara, the purity and strength. Even Kate's determination made him think of the girl's adamant stubborn nature. But Eolai was an Itherian mage....he was a destroyer. He was a monster. What use could he be in bringing her back from whatever precipice she was about to fall from' Eolai couldn't heal....he was useless. For all his power, the best he could do was hold onto the broken pieces of whatever he touched until nothing was left. But if Kate thought he could do it.....if she would show him how....he would do whatever it took to fix what happened here. He released the stops on his power, let go of the rage in a clarity he knew had to come from Kate. WIth it, came an infinite sea within him. The waves of this internal landscape slowed and calmed. He opened that calm vastness to Kate, opening his eyes and looking to her. Those eyes showed nothing but utter darkness and a ring of golden light. "Show me."

He shook his head but she held fast to his hand, her calm steadfast and unwaning. "You are and you will." She encouraged him, her voice soft so he would have to focus on it if he wanted to hear what she said. Destruction was an innate part of each and every Asterian. It was half of Kate herself and it was just as much a part of Clara, her sisters, her mother, and so on and so forth. Perhaps that was what drew the girl to the mage, what saw him through the faces that would have terrified others. Every lifeweaver had the choice between creation and destruction and it was a choice they had to make each and every day without even realizing it. Today' Today Kate would show him how they chose creation. What she showed him was an echoing aura of silver-white light, bright, pure, but eaten through in places until what was solid more closely resembled swiss cheese. She didn't show him how to knit those holes back together, there wasn't enough to do that. Rather, he was shown how to form it from chaos itself, to shape it and purify it until it was strong enough to hold everything together. What she gave him wasn't a way to heal the girl in the other room but rather a way to keep her tethered and safe while she did it herself. If his focus slipped, so too did the tether, evident in a leap over her heartbeat followed by a longer lull than before until it could steady with his influence. It would hopefully give him something to focus on while the doctor made neat incisions in the side of the mage's thighs, parting flesh just enough to slip the heavy plates beneath muscles and tendons for her to secure them to each femur with a series of specially made screws. Each was made of a different metal and Clara had been very particular about the order in which they were put in, in order to maximize the regulatory potential of each plate.

Eolai watched what she showed him, understanding what she wanted. Likely it was the only way he was going to be able to focus on something other than the doctor who was cutting into his legs and sliding the plates into him. His eyes unfocused as he let his awareness lift from his body and focus entirely on Clara. There, the pain of the procedure was a backdrop....a static in the wind, ever present and very irritating but nothing he couldn't tune out in favor of something more important. The mage's astral form drifted before Kate, a shining ethereal form of gold and swirling black sigils. He followed what Kate showed him, shaping the chaotic forces she opened his eyes to. His concentration never slipped, never wavered. It was one thing a collapsing mage of Ither had going for them. Whatever their minds fixated on....few forces could stop them from doing as they pleased. Perhaps Kate understood this and gave him a task. Perhaps she simply wanted to let him use the power he had to spare. Perhaps she had her own more subtle or less obvious reasons. Eolai didn't care. She granted him a way to do something beyond lay there and scream. Which his body was doing....despite being perfectly still. Eolai paid it no mind. It was a distraction. Unimportant.

Her intention was twofold; first to ground the excess power he put off as best as she could. It would do nobody any favors for him to implode. Secondly to keep Clara afloat, circumventing the typical rules that said Kate couldn't, or at least shouldn't, interfere in the girl's natural course in life. To have Eolai do it though' That wasn't breaking the rules, not in the least. And finally, to satisfy her own curiosity. The mage had been a passing interest but now....the opportunities were endless. His potential was as vast as the void itself if only he could be shown how to harness it. The mage's focus paid off little by little, steadying the girl in the other room heartbeat by heartbeat.

"There you go..." She encouraged him, her voice cutting through the screaming and the sound of the drill that set each screw into his bones. Each plate was nearly fourteen inches in length, slightly curved for the contour of his bones and then fashioned into place with the focus-conductor screws to create a progressive circuit through which arcane power could flow. For what it was worth, the young surgeon had a steady, efficient hand and quickly she managed two of the harder implants. The ones in his arms would hopefully be less painful. They were smaller, only nine inches and significantly narrower. The screws were the same though, each placed in a specific order to maximize their potential.

The final plate posed the most trouble, at least pain wise, but it was saved for last. T-shaped, it would cover the mage's sternum and branch out over half of his clavicle. It was made of the same focus metals only this plate was etched with a series of runes, something older than even the Ancient Greek cantrips Clara had used for the separation process. They would help make up for the fact the screws weren't as deep and offer protections against corruption to the mage's mind and heart.

Eolai's concentration was ironclad and he barely reacted to her encouragement. What reaction he gave her was a small smile from his astral form. He didn't say it, but her presence comforted him in a perverse sort of way. Should he fail....Should he be the cause of Clara's death or undue suffering, he imagined she would kill him without much hesitation. If any at all. He didn't imagine he would fight it, but he did think about the devastation he could cause if she didn't. If Clara didn't open her eyes, nothing short of Kate would stop him from destroying everything he came into contact with. He was sure of it. Until he tore those plates from his body and took his last breaths before collapsing in the most spectacular way he could think of. But all of that was idle thought. For the moment, the vast majority of his focus was on keeping that stupid stubborn teenaged thorn in his side alive so he could yell at her for not finding a safer way to separate them.

It would have been a shame to destroy something like him, but ultimately if it came down to it and she had to, she would have. So for now she maintained the connection between the mage and the girl he had convinced so easily that he didn't love. Eventually, Clara relaxed one room over, much to Ash's relief. Her hair was damp with perspiration, stuck to her face and neck in much the same way her clothes clung to her skin. There was so much blood though that it was no wonder that she was a ghastly shade of white, but still, she was breathing and her heart rate had steadied to a slow but strong beat. It came in time for the sound of the drill to stop.

"Done!" Amara hissed through her teeth, quickly switching utensils in order to close the mage up and seal the last plate in. A practiced hand whipped smoothly through a series of dissolvable stitches in much the same manner she had on his arms and legs, taking care to make them as strong as she could manage. Still Kate held Eolai's hand just so he could see that Clara was doing okay at the very least. He had done exactly what he needed to, he had kept her safe long enough for her body to repair the worst of the damage.

Sain wasn't. For a moment there, what felt like forever, he hadn't existed. He was sure of it. Because only not existing could have felt like that. So painful and so very....very wrong. Wherever he was, whatever he was, it couldn't exist. This couldn't be it. And then.....it wasn't. Suddenly everything snapped back into focus, into existence. The pain of being ripped away and untangled and reassembled....he had made it through. It took a long time for him to acclimate to what was his new body. He let his awareness flow through it, feeling his aura first as it slowly adjusted to the artificial form and the network of crystals that simulated the chakra points. Then, he flexed his mental abilities, understanding each one was largely unchanged. His senses came next. That was the one that hurt....because he remembered what had happened during the transfer. The pain he'd felt trying to contain Eolai, forcing his emotions into check only for Clara's words to guide him down a path of anguish he hadn't expected to have to face at that moment. He had suspected really....some part of him may have even known all along. He'd just hoped he was wrong, or those feelings would fade. Obviously they hadn't. He felt her before he heard her. The press of her head against his chest. To his surprise, he had a heartbeat. He breathed in....another surprise. The smells, the taste of the air, a mildly silicate flavor on his tongue before even that vanished. Then he opened his eyes. There she was. "Clara." He said quietly, his voice almost startling him. It was the same. So much of it the same. Maybe he should have gone with something else....a new face, a new voice. Maybe she wouldn't think of Eolai when she looked at him. What she lost. What she settled for.

It seemed an eternity passed with her head on his chest, a spill of silent prayers on her lips to every deity possible. Just give her this one, universe, and she'd never ask for another again. She hoped so hard that she was almost sure she was hallucinating when he said her name. But she could hear the telltale thump of the heartlike reactor, a heart she had etched her name on before installing it. Slowly she lifted her head, her hair a dark veil of mourning around her sheet white face. It resembled a scene from Carrie if only for how much red there was. "Sain?" She murmured, her voice thick in her throat. "Oh gods....oh gods, it's you..." She nearly climbed up on the table with him but had to settle for moving up to beside his head so she could touch his face. Though she knew she should have waited, she swooped down and kissed him fiercely as if her life depended on it.

Sain blinked, and tried a weak smile. It was him, he was pretty sure anyway. Everything felt just slightly different, but even the sight of her was a little off. It hit him around the same time she leaned down and kissed him. It was off because he was stronger. He was faster. He could feel the difference in how quickly he was capable of thinking. How fast the feedback on his body was. The amount of details he took in and processed all at once. The web of subsystems that he knew supported the interface between his conscious mind and the body was faster than the biological neurons they simulated. It wasn't off....it was slower. His body didn't feel wrong....it felt stronger. The shock of it kept him from reacting much when she kissed him, he was still getting used to the feeling of....well, feeling. The entire quality of the experience was different. He realized that he'd been experiencing his life through the filter of Eolai's body, that somehow that filter had detracted from every experience in a small nearly intangible way. It was likely how he got through Hunter Training without going mad or dying. Now though, everything seemed clearer, sharper. Even his emotions, which he'd been terrified wouldn't transfer with him. Now he kind of wished they hadn't. Time to try moving. He turned his head away from her kiss. "Too much." He said quietly. Even that sounded louder, his hearing was....excellent. Now he had to figure out what to do.

He turned away and for a moment she didn't know what to do. Of course it was too much, she should have known. Her elation muted, she leaned back but maintained a vice grip on the table's edge if only to keep herself upright. When she looked away from him, she found Ash had slipped out of the room, leaving them alone. Clara swallowed the lump that formed in her throat and dropped her gaze back to the hunter. What if everything hadn't transferred properly' What if she lost her Sain" The knots in her stomach twisted once more and for a moment she thought she might crumble but her white knuckle hold kept her anchored. "I....how do you feel?" She whispered as quietly as she could.

He twitched his fingers, testing the responsiveness. Then he moved his hands, slowly working his way up to moving his arm to one side of the table. His fingers wrapped around the edge of the table....it was cool to the touch. Metal of some kind. He squeezed. The metal crumpled under his grip like paper. So he was stronger. Much stronger. He'd have to get used to that. Even as he thought it though, his body responded to the concept and he knew exactly how much force he was putting out. He tried again, finding the metal unyielding. For the moment, he put aside his feelings about her and Eolai. For the moment, they had come out of this whole, and alive. The very fact that he woke up told him it was likely the surgery was a success. So he smiled and...."Input not recognized. Restate command." he said placidly.

Movement was good. Very good. Truthfully she should have been watching for and documenting all of his reactions to make sure they were within expectation but ultimately she wasn't really sure what "expectation" was to begin with. Clara let go of the table when he grasped the edge and faltered back into a less than graceful lean against the gurney that Eolai had created. Thankfully it held her up as she stared at the hunter, slightly slack jawed. "Are....um....are you fucking with me?" She asked quietly, unsure if something had gone wrong or if he was going to be the one to inject a dose of levity into the moment.

His smile slowly widened into a grin. "Where is Sarah Connor?" He intoned in his best austrian accent. It was terrible. "Also, yes." He said seriously before he sat up from the table. Or, tried to anyway. The movement was fast, very fast. he sat up and practically slid from the table. Momentum carried him from the edge to the floor, where he landed with surprising reflexes on his feet. Like with his grip, he felt his body readjust to proper output levels and knew just about where his speed should be. Straightening up, he gave her a wide smile. "I feel fine Clara." A laugh slipped from him, almost startling him again. He wasn't sure if he would have to force something like that....but it seemed his mind's unconscious reactions were still at work. "You've done amazing work." He said, examining his hands. It was a little late to appreciate it at this point. Now that he was already stuck in it.

Her shoulders sagged when she realized he was messing around, a wobbly flicker of a sheepish smile managing to cross her lips. She rubbed a hand over her mouth, covering the soft sigh of relief. Her gaze ran over him, dipping low then swinging high to a point over his head. "Crap....I....uh....damnit." Clara groaned into her hands and shook her head. "You're taller." It wasn't much, maybe an inch, but she hadn't accounted for the musculature and skin when she had built the frame. Another thing she hadn't accounted for was the clothing thing. Had it been tomorrow, she would have been more prepared and had Sain bring a change of clothes. But this....well, none of it had been planned. They had to do the best they could. She bit at her bottom lip and trained her gaze on his face. Even the color of his eyes was spot on, the warm brown she so liked. "I'm, um....really glad though....I was worried..."

Strangely he wasn't bashful about the body. Perhaps it hadn't yet sunk in as his own. "I suppose coming out of something like this with an extra inch or two isn't the worst thing that could've happened." He chuckled quietly, his grin fading. "I was too....you didn't tell me what you were going to do." He said sternly. Or that she was still in love with Eolai....but he didn't mention that at the moment. Now wasn't the time. "But surprisingly I feel pretty good. All things considered anyway." He didn't mention the tearing of his being as Eolai fought to be free of what was Sain. Or the nothingness he'd become for who knew how long. Or the cutting pain of the memories he'd used to keep Eolai calm.

"Yeah....um, I suppose not." She flushed, though it was a barely there shade of pale pink in her cheeks. His grin faded and any lingering hint of her own smile faded too. She expected a scolding. From him, from Eolai, from her friends. But it was all worth it because even if he ended up hating her, he was alive. She sucked at her bottom lip, the taste of blood still sharp on her lips. "You wouldn't have let me do it if you had known. Sometimes we have to do things that people don't like in order to get the job done." And she wasn't sorry because he was here to have this conversation to begin with. Her hand steadied her against the table and she gave him a little shrug. "I didn't really plan much for what happens afterwards....so....um....hi."

He shrugged and leaned against the table, staring at her as she defended herself. "You're damn right I wouldn't have let you do it. There's a difference between doing something someone doesn't like and damn near killing yourself over..." He stopped, running a hand through his hair. Even the mannerisms he'd developed out of habit and muscle memory when he was agitated had come through. He didn't finish his sentence. But the words echoed in his head, left unsaid and unheard. Over something like me. Over the part of Eolai he didn't want. That's all Sain really was. A piece of Eolai the mage didn't want. An attainable piece. And now a separate piece with Eolai's face and body and....He closed his eyes and sighed. "...Hi." He said softly. "You did a good job. You stubborn, thick headed, stupid beautiful godsdamned genius. Next time you decide to risk your life, warn me so I can do something to help keep you safe." Before she could cut in, he held up a hand. "I know there's nothing I could have done here. That's not the point." He looked at her. "Fair enough?"

"But I did it and I did it damned near perfectly." She said with a lift of her chin. Though she was exhausted, she couldn't help but try and defend her pride over it even if it aggravated him. Long ago when she had formulated the entire plan, she acknowledged the fact that she could very well die in the process. It was precisely why she had no plans for afterwards because none of the outlooks were favorable. All she could do was ensure that Chip would give Ash the equipment that Clara had put together for her and would give Amara the file containing the information that would change the entire course of her career at St. Luke's. Beyond that, she had no plans, and now she was standing here in front of the fruit of weeks of her laboring and he was frustrated with her. Still she took her scolding without breaking down over it, unapologetic because he still acknowledged that she did a good job. "Sain....I told you that you were worth it. 'It' being everything. You are worth the risk, you are worth the gamble. I'm not sorry." She could have easily helped split the hunter from the mage solely for the mage's freedom and left whatever bit of the hunter remained to languish in nothingness. "But next time....and fuck, there better not be a next time....I will tell you."

Damn near. That was right. If not for the damage to her and well, the little bit he'd found out, he would've said perfect altogether. But he just nodded silently for a moment, considering things as he mentally processed things. What she had risked for him was nothing less than everything. He wondered why, when Eolai was who she'd wanted. The idea that she'd fallen in love with them both didn't help him. Nor did the fact that she'd concealed when she'd finished the body, seemingly only telling him to spite Eolai. Then he realized what he'd been missing. Hunters. Eolai's fear of the Order coming. What pushed the mage into collapse had been the rising panic. Yet Sain processed it smoothly, his new thought processes faster than ever. "I meant next time you do something stupid and risk your life." He said flatly. He stretched slowly, then reached over and pulled the sheet from the table. He wrapped himself with the cloth after folding it here and there into a serviceable chiton like garment. "How's Eolai?"

"Well that's a rude assumption to make." She frowned and folded her arms over her chest. Clara preferred the concept of calculated gambles based on risk versus reward and seldom did she consider such a process stupid. Even if it risked her life. Was his not worth just as much as hers" He said once long ago that his life wasn't worth more than anyone else's but by his rationale it meant that he was worth just as much. Had things gone perfectly and she died in the process, that was two lives saved, twice what she was proverbially worth. His question prompted a glance at the door, her frown deepening. "I don't know." That they were all still alive should have meant something but some part of her was afraid to go look. "I passed out....he wasn't here when I woke up. I don't know."

"I see. Perhaps you should go find out what happened. I'm ok. And I'll be right here when you get back." It was a rational choice. He was fine. Now she should check on the other patient. That's how these things worked right' He looked over at the sword, sunk into the stone of the bunker. Could he even pick it up without risking destroying a body kept going by tech and magic both' He wasn't sure, so he left it where it was.

"I..." Clara glanced from the door to the hunter and tried not to frown more. "Promise?" She asked softly, her brows lifting. Maybe all of this was a fever dream and she would come back to find the hunter gone. Straightening from her half-propped lean against the table, she swayed then steadied before taking the first tentative step toward the door. "Only if you promise."

The swaying made him think maybe he should accompany her. But he nodded. "I promise. Or I can carry you, you look like you're pretty unsteady there..." He said quietly. He could wait outside the door. This was their moment. He wouldn't want to spoil it by reminding Eolai of what he'd escaped. Some time apart was probably best for both of them. Besides, he had something to test while she was gone, and she'd likely tell him not to do it if she was in the room. So probably best she go, or at least he get some time alone for a few moments. He held up his pinky, making sure to keep it still. "I'll even pinky swear. But....I'm still iffy on the whole controlling my strength thing, so um....Probably you should do the pinky wrap if you do. Don't wanna break your finger." He chuckled.

She shook her head. Carrying her wouldn't be necessary. That would imply she was anything but fine. Instead she lifted a hand and extended an unsteady pinky. The ring on the digit had left a scorch mark on her skin, likely through the course of touching the mage and the massive amount of power that had flowed so freely from him. She looped her finger around his then brought her other hand up to cup around his, gently closing his pinky around hers. "I'll be right back..." She murmured before letting him go and making her way for the door. In the atrium she stood outside of the other room, breathing slowly in hopes that it might ready her for whatever she might find inside. It took two tries to tug the door open but she finally got it and found herself washed with white light. None of the surgical equipment remained and there wasn't even an echo of a presence within. Only a solid steel table upon which fourteen words offered her only explanation. He was gone. Her part was done, he was free, he was gone. A confirmation of fears long ingrained. She had nothing she could say so she simply turned off the light and pulled the door shut behind her before shuffling back to the other doorway. Leaning again the frame, she shrugged. "He's gone."