"Was hurt before."

"When you're not super close to starting bleeding again I'm going to hug you and not put you down for a week."

"Maybe put a pillow on first."

Lightly: "Sure, El-El."

Now she's crying.

Akira steps out of the room.

Bellona puts one hand - large, leathery, cold - over El's only remaining hand.

"Thank you, for putting me back..." she says, softly.

"'M sorry I couldn't get your body..."

"It's okay El."

"I - I think I can be alright with it, for a time."

"But we'll figure out a way to get our bodies back. Both of us. Just - safely. Someday."

"Yeah. Someday."

She's still, when she's thinking. She doesn't shift like she used to - Bellona had fidgeted constantly, in her body, but in the armor she tends to freeze if she's not actively thinking about moving.

"We - should get you automail. Back at the Rockbells, they won't tell anyone what happened, and I don't think anyone but sensei knows we're from Resembool, so - if it's not safe here that should be an okay place to stay."

"Won't get very far like this. Yeah."

Slowly, so as not to jostle El's wounds, she gently wraps an arm over El's chest.

"I'll carry you as far as I have to. You're my sister."

She grips Bellona's arm with hers.

And, after some slightly awkward cuddling:

"I think sensei wants to talk with us."

"Probably does. Can get her." El will let her arm go.

She pats her sister, then goes to the door, and comes back in with their teacher.

"El. It's good to see you awake."

"...Sorry we did human transmutation without you."

She pauses.

"I - would have preferred you two not sacrifice anything for me, but - I should have warned you more thoroughly of the consequences. I'm sorry, for that."

"It was Dante. She gave us a Philosopher's Stone. We - thought it'd be enough. She was acting like it'd be enough."

" - I see."

"She wanted us to make more of them."

"They're made of people."

"We said no, and then we came right here because we wanted to tell you, and then you were dead - "

"There was nothing missing from my library or my office, and the intruder targeted me directly."

"I - do not think we're safe, here."