Winged - Currently Under Heavy Editing

With or Against

~~~~~~~Rii's POV~~~~~~~

Pain. There was so much pain. I tried to focus on something, anything around me but the pain in my wing was unbearable. I remember being lifted on a stretcher and carried some distance before I succumbed to it. When I woke up, I was back in the city, on a bed in the medical ward. The pain had subsided and my wing had been bandaged and taped in place. Next to me were two people, Vex and Spera, both worried but Vex was faring better than my protege.

"Ah good, you're awake. How are you faring?" Vex asked, moving closer to the bed.

Looking to my wing and then back at my superior, "Still hurts but it's manageable now. Where's Adelphi? I want to talk to her."

"I don't think that's the best idea Rii, she's responsible for this and I don't want you coming back injured even more than you were coming in."

"Well, where is she being kept then?" I refute.

"She is being quarantined with a decent amount of guards outside the room. Please stay in bed and rest up, I don't want anyone agitating your wing."

"Come on, if there are guards then I will be fine. Besides, I can always knock her out again if worse comes to worse." I smiled, feeling the morphine from earlier.

Vex sighs in resignation before again shooting me down, "No Rii, you need to heal at least a bit before your do anything else." I groan in agitation as I am forced to become the little girl I was years ago, defenseless, powerless, a sitting duck.

I could feel the tear roll down my cheek as I listened haphazardly to Vex. I didn't remember what he said to me, I could catch up later. Right now I needed someone who wasn't here. "Where's Brennan?"

Spera answered my question this time, "He is at his house. He isn't in the best mental state right now between seeing Adelphi, seeing you, not seeing Nadia, and hearing Adelphi did this to you. I wouldn't be surprised if the house was a disaster when I go back." She mused.

"Can I see him?"

"Maybe. Why don't you just wait a few hours for the situation to diffuse before we do anything." Vex chimed in once again. My only response was a huff.

"What? Our company not good enough for you?" Spera mocked, offended.

"Oh, woe is you. How dare I not be grateful of your company." I mock back, turning my head to see her.

"Just relax. Maybe you can have visitors later today." She finished with a smile. I concede and lay my head back on the paper-wrapped pillow.

I'm not quite sure how I got the time to pass. A nurse came in and checked my bandages, Vex asked her how long until I would he back in the air. I didn't hear her reply but Vex's expression told me it would be awhile. Vex then promptly left the building, but to do what I did not know. Possibly to form a new strategy with me on the sidelines, possibly to talk to our Leader, possibly to pace around and panic in the solidarity of his own home. I spent little time worrying about him as Spera took his place by my bedside and told me of how Nadia cursed her and sent scouts after her. Retelling it had reduced her to tears.

"Hey, this isn't your fault, you know that? We should have known it wouldn't have been this easy." I comfort her, hushing her to stop.

"But, how is our plan going to work without all of them here? Adelphi or Brennan could easily go back to Hope Academy and they could tell the scouts where we are and the scouts could take you or me and they could torture us or kill us or-"

"Stop Spera. Nothing is going to happen to you, nothing is going to happen to me. Vex is probably talking to Adelphi right now and you said yourself that Brennan is throwing a tantrum in his house." I say with a smile. "The only person we have to worry about is Nadia and if she isn't with us, she is against us."