Prompt: Self-First Aid

Focus Agent: Astra

Timeline: N/A

Summary: Being the Astral Guardian requires Astra to leave the VALORANT Protocol often. Sometimes, it's a lonely job.

Alone in the Cosmos

  "I can literally create new stars, but I can't magically heal myself like Phoenix and Sage. Yawa," Astra grumbled. There wasn't even an echo of her own voice to answer her. 

The Ghanaian girl gripped the bandage in her teeth and pulled hard, the gauze muffling her cry of pain. The white bandage squeezed her bicep tightly, almost cutting off the blood flow. The difficult part done, she finished wrapping the cut and tapped it off. 

Being the Astral Guardian made her the protector of the cosmos. It was a vital task that required her to leave the VALORANT Protocol often. Astra willingly accepted her duty, even if it was a lonely one. 

Perhaps that's why she joined the VP. Sure, she joined because it was important for the future of her earth, but it was nice having friends to fight alongside. She hung out with the girls and ate Jollof with Phoenix. They watched each other's back and patched each other's wounds. She didn't realize how lonely she was before meeting them. 

Astra couldn't hold back a groan as she pushed a needle into her skin. The tiny pleasure of having no one else around is that she could be as loud as she needed when preforming self-first aid. However, if someone else was here, she wouldn't have to do this in the first place. 

In and out, the needle threaded her flesh together. Each puncture made her vision swim until she could barely see. After tying it off, Astra poured some water from her bottle onto her leg to wash away the blood with a sigh of relief. 

In protecting the very cosmos, Astra has fought some very strange threats, most she couldn't tell the Protocol about. Some things are just better left unknown. Yet the strangest threat she ever fought was herself. 

She was meditating in the cosmic reality when someone grabbed her physical form and threw her onto the ground, shocking her back into her body. The other Astra stood over her, a grim expression on her face. 

  "Girl, what are you doing?" Astra had demanded once she recovered. 

  "I came to warn you, Astra," the other responded darkly. Astra shivered at the sound of her voice. "Don't try to stop me and the VALORANT Legion. Leave the Protocol to their losing battle, chale, and return to your duty."

Astra jumped to her feet, enraged by her Omega self's hypocrisy. "What you mean, girl? You know why I joined the VP. And stopping you from stealing our radiantite is part of my job as the Astral Guardian. Why don't you go back to your own world and do your job, ya?"

  "This is my only warning."

  "Then you wasted your time."

The sky turned purple and flashed with golden stars. The two Astras battled for dominance of the field. Many new stars were created between the cracks of gunfire and slashing of knives. It seemed to Astra that the cosmos would explode if they two of them dragged their fight on for two long. Luckily, the other Astra realized this, too. When the board cleared, Astra found herself alone with the open sky, green grass, the blue lake, and the towering mountains. Astra would have never guessed a battle just took place if not for the weariness and the wounds on her body.

Once her arm and leg were patched up, Astra dragged herself to the edge of the lake and looked into the surface. Her dirty, bloody reflection stared back at her. 

She cupped her hands and dipped them into the cool, refreshing water. She scrubbed her face with it before taking some butterfly closure bandaids from the pouch on her belt and, using the lake as a mirror, tapped her cuts. Being alone and not always near civilization, Astra learned to be prepared for every kind of situation, especially first aid. 

She pinched her flesh together, wincing at the stinging and flaring pain. Two cuts needed closure tape. The others will heal on their own. She wondered if the other Astra was doing the same thing or if she had managed to teleport back to her own earth and was receiving treatment from Sage or Skye. 

  "Lucky hypocrite," she muttered at the thought. 

Taking a swig from her water bottle, Astra then stood up and tested her weight on her stitched leg. The aspirin she had taken at the start was beginning to kick in, yet her wounds still felt tight and painful. 

  "It will have to do for now," Astra remarked to no one. "I need to send a message to Brim ASAP."

She picked up the habit of talking to herself over the years. Talking aloud made the loneliness feel a bit less suffocating. 

Slinging her bag over her shoulder, the one not connected to her injured arm, Astra began her long walk back to civilization. The work of the Astral Guardian was never done.