Abandoned Subway Tunnels, Los Angeles, Saturday Afternoon

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"Stealth said that this place is a kind of refuge for homeless people who didn't want to shelter up on the surface," Banzai said, leading the way through the subway tunnels. "They're really good at policing their own; making it safe for women and families to stay down here. No drugs, no violence, that kind of thing. Isn't perfect, but pretty damn

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"I don't--" Banzai began, then quieted when she heard a noise. A noise that wasn't the constant chattering of teeth that had threatened to drive her mad.

A noise that was human.

"Did you hear that?" she asked, whirling around. "I heard something--someone! There's someone still alive in here!

[not_every_mage]

"I heard it," Anders nodded. "Hard to believe, but maybe someone hid."

Or maybe someone was crying out as they slowly died. Hard to tell. He crept closer to the wall, head tilted as he tried to track the source of the noise.

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It was a little girl. Banzai found her, wedged deep in what had probably been a maintenance shaft before it had been turned into a community. It had taken a bit of maneuvering to ease the little girl out, which was probably why she'd managed to survive. Hard to say how long she'd been hiding there; she was hungry, dehydrated...and infected.

"Oh," Banzai said, voice catching as she saw the bites on the little girl's legs. "Oh no." She was feverish and pale, except for two spots of bright color in her cheeks. Her skin was waxy with fever blisters around her mouth. Even without the bites spelling her death, she'd die without medical intervention soon. "Anders!" Banzai cried, holding the little girl out to him. "Please! You have to be able to do something!"

What good was magic healing if they couldn't save this little girl?

[not_every_mage]

"Let me see," Anders said, moving as fast as he ever did as he went to kneel by the girl. He shifted to ease her head onto his lap -- it seemed wrong for her to be on the filthy floor.

He murmured to himself as he checked the girl over. He didn't know if he could heal a zombie bite -- healers couldn't do anything about the blight -- but she was still breathing, and where there was life, there was hope. At the least he could try. (And if it didn't work, maybe Kathy would finally acknowledge this was futile.)

"We're trying to help you," he told the girl, not sure whether she could even hear him. "You'll be fine."

And then he gave the healing all he had. His eyes closed and his skin went pale as the girl's fever blisters shrunk and her bite marks faded to scratches. It didn't entirely feel like a normal healing: Whatever had caused this, it was fighting back against him and hard.

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While Anders worked, Banzai tried to contact Stealth but this far below ground, she couldn't get a signal. There were a few landlines scattered about, but they were covered in blood and worse.

Rather than continue to fuss with them, she returned to Anders' side to watch him work, trying not to pace and destroy his concentration. Did it normally take this long? Maybe things were different because most of the healings she'd witnessed him doing were her own, so her sense of timing was off, but she was pretty sure it didn't normally take this long.

And it definitely didn't leave him looking this pale and drained.

"Anders?" she asked, kneeling down and reaching for him. "Anders!"

[not_every_mage]

"I'm fine," he lied, barely moving. (He wasn't exactly -- but he was more fine than the little girl, and that was what mattered.) The blue Fade energy of healing still surrounded the girl. "This is bad. It's fighting me. But she looks a little better, doesn't she?"

Healthy color was returning to the girl's cheeks, and her breathing had taken on a calmer pattern.

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"I think--I think you're doing it!" Banzai said, putting her wrist to the girl's forehead. It was cool to the touch now, as opposed to before when the heat had practically been radiating off of her. "You're curing her--Anders, do you get it? You're curing the zombie bite."

This was huge. It changed literally everything.

[not_every_mage]

"I am?" Anders asked in a cracked, dull voice. He mainly just wanted to sleep.

He pulled his hands back, looked at the child in his lap. She looked back at him uncertainly. "I did it," he said. "It took almost everything I have, but I did it. Now if we could just portal in every mage in Thedas, we'd get somewhere."

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"Regenerator," Banzai said immediately, staring at him in something close to awe. "His powers are insane, you don't even understand. If you can heal the zombie plague, then so can he. But--Anders, you did it."

And she was bending down to plant a giant kiss on him. He'd just saved her city, dammit.

[not_every_mage]

"I did it for one girl," Anders said. "And she was still alive. If Regenerator can take care of the dead ones --"

And then it didn't matter what he was going to say, because Kathy was kissing him and that was the best argument he'd ever heard in favor of trying to heal zombies.

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'Genny couldn't heal the dead ones, they'd tried. That was one of the reasons that Banzai had captured the first few, rather than dispatching them immediately. But he could heal the infected ones without anywhere near the strain Anders had undergone. By himself, he might just be the equivalent of every healing mage in Thedas.

She'd mention that to him. In a minute. Because kissing. All of her hurt and anger evaporated like water in summer.

[not_every_mage]

Anders was going to take a little longer to press past his hurt than Kathy had. But for the first time since they got to L.A., he at least felt like this was something they could let go.

The girl,healthy now but still confused, slid away and scampered into the dark almost soundlessly, and Anders almost didn't care. Not when there was kissing.

Almost, but not quite.

"Should we go after her?" he asked, a breath away from Kathy's mouth.

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In fairness, she hadn't just provided the salvation for his home city.

"Yeah," Banzai said, pulling away reluctantly. "There's no one down here to take care of her. And 'Genny's going to want to look at her, too. See if he can learn anything more from her. We'll have to bring her to him right away. And call Stealth! And the Mighty Dragon!" She clapped her hands and grinned with at him. "You saved us, Anders. Thank you."

And then she was loping off after the little girl that lived.