No. Just that she'd never been healed like magic like this before.
Helga needed to stop being surprised by the question Xu asked. Everyone wanted to know. Sometimes they were curious about how and why such a thing existed. But here? Here it was different.
She knew the context. It was not her first rodeo. No matter how far she separated herself in time and space, someone, somewhere, had the same intent.
"Funny story, that." Helga took another drag. "I can tell you how I got there. I can tell you what I was doing there, and what I found there. I can even tell you how I got out. But the one thing I can't do is tell you exactly where it is. Think of it like an NDA that I'm perpetually suffering under."
She couldn't even tell Seifer.
"It was part of the terms of my release. I tell no one, ever, and this little thing that keeps me alive doesn't kill me." She picked up the crystal by the chain it hung on and let it dangle. "It's almost... sentient. It knows intent. So I get to shut up or toe the line as best I can."
It's ridiculous, impossible to believe, and yet Helga is a person who only lies when it serves her purpose.
Telling her bluntly about the thing that fixed Xu is not to her purpose-- so there's a second where she's honestly not sure what she believes, and it probably registers on her face, surprised enough that she doesn't bother to hide it.
But there are probably enough details in the story surrounding it that she could get a team out, looking for the source of that power. If there's one thing Garden's very, very good at, it's working off extremely limited information.
Xu watches the crystal turning lightly on its chain, refracting tiny flashes of light off its facets from the lamplight. If it were anyone else, there would be an urge, one she wouldn't be sure she could stop, to get the gun out of her side table's drawer, shoot the person carrying the crystal, and keep it for herself.
But Helga is her friend. Helga is one of the very few people left in the world that Xu can trust.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she says, and hates that it's the truth. "I'd rather you not be killed by a rock. That would be a waste."
Helga gave a hollow smile and twisted her hand to pull the chain up, then closed her fingers around the crystal. She was safe - it was safe - for now.
"Thanks. There's a lot to that story, and I really don't want to go back into it. Can't have myself looking less-cool now, can I?"
She tapped the ash from her cigarette into a glass ashtray and contemplated snuffing the thing out half-through. Was it time to swing wildly from one addiction to another? Had smoking gotten old?
"So yeah, now you sort of know. The whole age thing isn't a gimmick. It's not some sort of mental psychosis. It's the truth. It's the thing that keeps me going and the reason I can't stop.
"This isn't gonna get my benefits docked, is it?" Because if this caused her medical coverage to get suspended, she would need to have a serious talk with Xu.












