Chapter 1 : A Short Story

“Medics here, who needs help?” he questioned. It’s almost like Sasha never heard me tell him I was fine.

"Yeah," Victoria mumbled, turning the corner, "But now that the adrenaline has faded away it's starting to hurt." She looked like she was in pain. Her face was consorted in pain, her eyebrows pinched together as she bit her bottom lip as she held her injured arm.

“I need you, I need your lyrium to keep Justice calm.” Anders blurted out, eyes downcast to the floor.

“Oh, lovely,” said Lionel with a grin. “Just another one to add to my vast collection.” The knight commander lifted up his long, curly-blond hair from his neck and touched his burn. “Joan did a good job tending to it. I thought it would feel much worse.”

When he'd mentioned that she should know how to put on bandages in case a teammate was injured, her first thought was that he knew about her team and was judging her for it. She had flinched away, the pain too real.

“There is a disturbance that requires your expertise, Uhlan. You will proceed to Medical for deployment.” The man explained in a volume that aggravated Oberyn’s already intense migraine.

“Trust me,” she said softly still enveloped in Albert’s arms as she quietly cried in his arms. They both waited in the room silently as people filed in and out of the area even in the middle of the night. It felt like an eternity before a doctor approached Leda and Dr. Farrage. Both of them got up in anticipation with a sliver of hope. The doctors expression was somber as she introduced herself, explained how her team tried their best to resuscitate Dr. Steele, and offered her condolences. Leda felt as though someone had struck her with a wrecking ball. She kept repeating, “this is all my fault” as she collapsed on the floor crying. The doctor helped Dr. Farrage pick her up and seat her on a chair. The doctor apologized for their loss again

“Captured me and beat then left me for punish-ment.” He grumbled. His voice was hoarse like he hadn’t spoken in a long time. Niall finally cut through the rope and freed the boy's arms. His arms fell to his sides.

Fingers wrapped around leathered skin, barely there flesh, shattered bone, and held tight. Regret for the pain he inflicted on the warrior at the fore of his mind, he sent up a quick thanks to Asa, the Healer, for he grasped firm to Phenix’s broken leg.

“ Al! Kate! Milow! Sal! You guys there? If you are say something, Anyth...Ouch! What the heck!” he shouted as he grabbed his arm, feeling not only pain but blood as well. Is that my blood ,what’s in this place? Knifes or something. He hit himself on the head, Focus Ace! You can worry about it later, right now you have to find them.

I couldn’t hear what the paramedic was whispering to him, but from the looks of the man’s face, it wasn’t good. As I whirled around, I was face-to-face with a badly bruised, sullen Eli laid out on gurney. Tears soaked the drying tears on his tan skin while bandages coated with fresh blood were wrapped around his torso as he took shallow breathes. I reached out, placing a hand on his jawline, he looked horrible.

“There, there, now,” he continued, his jaw clenching. Leaning forward to take subtle control of her head, tilting it to examine more closely the area of concern. “What have we here,” he said giving her a slight grin, “a battle wound?”

The consideration didn’t last long as the next thing the man did was pull up on the chain, attempting to pull Lance to his feet.

“I heard a rumor,” She continued in a slow, almost monotone voice, “Pinkie, if you are using those zebra chems, you need to stop.”

Lance stops messing with the injury as he hears footsteps coming towards him. At the doorway, he sees his captor. He doesn’t have his headscarf around his face or his layers of clothes on to protect himself from the more than often occurring sandstorms.