Elias eventually sat down.
The cold wall against his back, he opened his first-aid kit with movements far too familiar to be reassuring.
ASTREA watched him.
She was not focused on the wound.
She was mostly observing the way he pretended it didn't matter.
"You're pretending you're fine," she said.
He let out a small laugh.
"That's often enough."
She knelt in front of him without asking permission.
"You're losing your fluid."
He looked down at the bandage already soaked through.
"Yeah. That one."
"In my system," she said very seriously, "when a unit loses its fluid, it means it's running out of battery."
He smiled despite himself.
"I like your logic."
She kept watching, then gently took his hand.
"Let me help you."
He hesitated.
Then loosened his grip.
"Alright."
She removed the bandage. Blood surfaced again, discreet but stubborn.
ASTREA inhaled.
"This is very dramatic," she murmured.
"Your body insists a lot."
He let out a quiet, stifled laugh.
"You should see it when it panics."
She placed her fingers near the wound, without touching it.
"You always start gently," she said.
"Otherwise the body resists."
Elias blinked.
"Always?"
She froze for half a second.
"I don't know," she admitted.
"It just… makes more sense that way."
A clear fluid slipped beneath her skin, almost shy. She adjusted her movements instinctively, changing the angle, the pressure.
As if she had done it before.
The pain slowly faded.
"…Okay," Elias said.
"That actually works."
ASTREA nodded, focused.
"I don't like forcing things," she explained.
"Repairing is about accompanying."
She withdrew her hands.
"Is it better?"
He looked at her for a long moment.
"Yeah."
A faint smile.
"Much better."
She smiled too. Small. Proud.
"I like it when you stop leaking."
He burst into a short laugh.
"I might keep you around just for that."
Far away, a continuous alarm began to sound.
The city started to sing under the footsteps of the Order's soldiers.
ASTREA lifted her head.
"If you stay here," she said,
"they're going to make you lose a lot more fluid."
Elias closed his kit.
"Then I'm not staying."
He rose slowly.
"We're going far away."
"Off the grid," she added.
"The Green Fringes."
She nodded.
"There," she murmured,
"I'll be able to keep helping you."
He opened the door.
"And I'll make sure you have the time to learn."
ASTREA stepped past him.
Elias remained still for a second, his hand on the handle.
The pain was still there.
But different. Bearable.
He looked at the trace of the treatment on his skin,
then at ASTREA's silhouette, already turned toward the outside.
Something inside him settled.
Not certainty.
Not memory.
Just this simple, unexpected thought:
I am no longer alone.
He closed the door behind them.
And, for the first time in a long while, the city loosened its grip.