>> Bang bang, baby shot me down

[witchmaker]

[ Angela appears on the Plane suddenly, stumbling backwards. Her gun is in one hand, pointed toward something that was before her mere seconds before. Her other hand is pressed up against her chest, right above her left breast. The arm aiming the gun is shaking, and the gray suit fabric beneath her other hand is slowly turning a dark red, as are

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[buckingbronco]

[Oh god] Angela! [And he's right there next to her]

[witchmaker]

[ Firo's there. He'd have to be there, after what had happened, but she was hoping, when she came here, that Dino was not.

The last thing she wants is for him to see this, what's happening to her. She doesn't want her blood all over his hands and his clothes, she doesn't want to see that helpless, pleading, lost look in his eyes.

But it's not like she can change that now. She barely has the strength to reach up and touch his face. ]

Di... no...

[buckingbronco]

A..Angela...[He's seen this too many times, seen his men die, watched people bleed out, he's held people, some he cared about, as they died. But this.... He wads up his coat and presses it over the most obvious wound, trying to stop the bleeding. He knows it won't do any good but he has to do something. It helps him ignore the feeling of hopelessness, sharp memories of the last time he tried a this exact same futile action intruding.] Hang on Angela, I'm right here. Will get you help, it will be all right, we'll get you help...just hang on, all right?

[witchmaker]

Di-- [ Speaking is becoming much more of an effort. She can feel everything draining from her, blood, breath, energy, will to live... Her limbs feel like lead, cold and numb. The arm she reached up with falls over. She's having trouble keeping her head up. It tilts to the side as Dino leans in over her and she manages to turn her eyes up toward him. ]

Sor--ry, did... nnn... [ She didn't wind up staying out of trouble after all. ]

[buckingbronco]

D..don't talk. Save your energy..[He's trying to remain calm but his hands are shaking, not bothering to even try stopping the tears forming in his eyes.] Stay with me. Do give up, don't give into something like this. You're stubborn, you can make it through! Just stay...

[witchmaker]

[ She stares up at him helplessly.

She wants to stay. She doesn't want to leave him behind, she doesn't... Immediately their last exchange comes to mind, the way she stormed off the plane and left him with the picture from Firo's world in his hands. All he'd done was worry about her, and while the things he'd said were uncalled for, he hadn't meant any harm.

But she'd left him. And she's leaving him again.

His words don't reach her anymore, there's just the pounding of her heart in her ears.

Her eyes unfocus, he's nothing but a fuzzy outline. She tries to concentrate on him, she tries so hard to stay.

Her heart shudders to a stop, and she can't hold on any longer. ]

[buckingbronco]

Angela! Angela! [There's not response, not that he was really expecting their to be. She isn't breathing. A sob catches in this throat.] Angela! Please! Don't do this to me.. [But her heart isn't beating and her blood has stopped flowing and even he can't pretending anymore. Tears hit the back of his hand and he doesn't even bother to wipe them away.] I'm sorry...I...[There had to have been something he could have done, something that would have stopped this. He should have been able to stop it! A soft, sob escapes him.]

[witchmaker]

[ The world slips out of her grasp and she finds herself in a numb, black void, devoid of sound, smell, taste... There's no air here, but that's all right, she doesn't have to breathe anyway.

She wonders how long she'll be here, until the Twins pull her back. What would they do with her, anyway? Would she fade into nothing, or would they have to pull her body away from Dino?

Dino... Some small part of her worries she won't see him again. A niggling feeling pulls at her, presenting the possibility of the Plane and all that happened being a drawn-out dream, one that she'll wake from in Altena, alone and miserable, with no escape.

No. No, it can't be. It can't...

Something glitters in the darkness. She watches, afraid to approach it. ]

[buckingbronco]

[He's cried before, tears of grief for those he'd lost back home and here, but never likes this. He's shaking, although he never makes a noise now. Tears fall as he just stares down at her body, wondering if he should have argued harder to make her stay, wondering if he should have told her more about what being Mafia truly meant...even if she had gotten annoyed with him, hated him for it, at least she still would have been alive to.]

[witchmaker]

[ The light flickers and goes out. She feels a mixture of relief for its parting, and regret for not going to it. Maybe she should have...

Then more lights glimmer to life around her. She stares up at them. They're not stars, not like the beautiful whirling galaxies on the Plane. They're something else entirely, and try as she might, she can't grasp what they really are, other than profound.

Finally she moves toward one. And they all explode, washing the blackness with white.

She's aware of a weight in her chest. Pin prickles run up and down the limbs she'd lost feeling of even before she'd lost herself. Her thigh burns, her chest aches. Vaguely, she's aware of the puddle of her blood she'd been lying in, and feels it not expand or spread, but ebb in closer, as if something were pulling it back inside her.

After a bit of hesitation, her heart starts to beat again. ]

[buckingbronco]

[Dino is to wrapped up in his grief to notice any changes]

[witchmaker]

[ Angela notices, however. The pain is immense, as her body speeds the healing processes that would take weeks to mere moments. Something small and metal is being pushed out of her chest, and another out of her leg. Meanwhile the blood continues to seep back into her, though the exit wounds in her abdomen, fading out of Dino's jacket and sliding off his face where she touched him.

Her lungs are functional again. She takes a heaving gasp of air and coughs, wincing at the sensation of her body repairing itself. ]

[buckingbronco]

[That sound startles him enough to snap him out of the half-numb state he was in. He finally looks at her.] Angela? [He finally notices the absence of blood around her and on him. A part of him beings to hope] Angela?

[witchmaker]

[ The pain's fading now, but it's still there, distant cramps from muscles and skin repairing themselves. She places one hand on the ground next to her and uses it to lift herself into a sitting position. ]

Dino..? [ She looks up at him, tears in her eyes. ] Dino?

[buckingbronco]

[Stares at her, then pulls her into a tight hug. He doesn't bother thinking about the why or how, just glad she's back.] Thank god...

[ooc: Sorry, the that icon is the only one with an expression I thought would fit. >< ]

[witchmaker]

[ She's startled by the hug, but that doesn't keep her from hugging back. She buries her face in his shoulder, inhaling and taking in his smell, happy that she didn't wake up alone in Altena as she'd feared. ]